Negative Punishment

A procedure in which a behavior is followed by a removal of an item/event/activity that results in the weakening of the behavior over time.  An example can be the use of time-out from the playground when a child does not follow the rule of “no-pushing peers” which results in the child stopping from pushing her/his peers while in the playground.  By definition, the procedure MUST produce the anticipated weakening effect on the behavior to be considered as negative punishment.