The assembly line story is an example of negative reinforcement. "We knew it wouldn't work," the managers said. The managers sent the behavior modifiers home and went back to the old system. It was unacceptable to have people taking a break every hour. Workers on the other assembly lines started asking for a similar system.Īt this point, the plant managers decided the experiment had to end. Workers were back to taking a 15 minute break every hour. But soon 80 transmissions took only 50 minutes.and then only 45 minutes. Nobody expected the "problem" that occurred next.Īt first, producing 80 transmissions took almost the whole hour. The workers grumbled, but given the alternative of going back to the old plan with no hourly break, they accepted the new quota. They boosted the production quota to 80 transmissions per hour. The plant managers had not expected this to happen, and they had no plans for dealing with it. Soon workers on the other lines were grumbling, "Hey, how come those guys are getting a 20 minute break every hour?" The line began to manufacture 60 transmissions in 45 minutes, then 60 transmissions in 40 minutes. The supervisors felt strange seeing the workers "goof off" every hour, but at least the line was finally meeting its quota. 60 transmissions were produced in 50 minutes, leaving 10 minutes for a break every hour. If the workers hate being "pushed" all the time, we will let them take time off (and avoid being pushed) when they meet their quota. OK, the psychologists said, then we can use negative reinforcement. They arrived at the idea when they realized there was no positive reinforcer available, because the management would not allow any extra salary incentives. The psychologists conceived of this as a negative reinforcement contingency. If the workers produced their quota of 60 transmissions before the end of the hour, they could take a break until the end of the hour. How does the story about the automatic transmission assembly line illustrate the potential power of negative reinforcement?Ĭonsulting psychologists suggested a contingency. As they saw it, they were being asked to produce more work for the same salary. When managers urged them to speed up, they complained about being exploited. They were supposed to manufacture a particular number of transmissions, let's say 60, per hour. Workers on one of the lines were going too slow, holding up the entire plant. Sometimes this works too well! Here is a story told by a guest lecturer in a Behavior Modification class.Ī major automobile manufacturer asked some behavioral psychologists to help solve a morale and production problem at an automobile assembly plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. This is negative reinforcement because the level of work is increased (the behavior becomes more frequent) as the result of having an aversive stimulus removed (time off from work). Most people will work extra hard if they can get some time off from work as a reward, especially if it is paid time off. One is to increase productivity in industry. Negative reinforcement also has many uses. So far we have considered variations on the theme of positive reinforcement.
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