Negative reinforcement

I heard this the other day, and I wanted to pass it along. It is suppose to be a science experiment conducted somewhere.

The experimenters had the subjects hold a string to their nose with a weight hanging on the string, and they were told to keep the weight centered above a set point.

They then gave the subjects positive reinforcement like, “Hold is still,” and “Keep doing well.” When they gave this type of reinforcement, the subjects did will, and the weight only moved a little bit.

Then they gave the subjects negative reinforcement like, “Whatever you do, don’t let it sway back and forth,” and “It is very important that you don’t let it wobble around.” When this happened, the weight began to sway and move around considerably more than it had before the instructions.

The point is that our minds have a hard time pulling the not out of a statement. Instructions with a inverting modifier such as not may not have the desired effect.

Then the point was made that while we can’t stop ourselves from hearing negative statements, we can stop ourselves from thinking about them. The moment we start thinking about what we don’t want to do, our minds begin practicing failure, and we become better at it.