09 FEB 2018 by ideonexus

 Bias in Praise VS Punishment and Reversion to the Mean

I had the most satisfying Eureka experience of my career while attempting to teach flight instructors that praise is more effective than punishment for promoting skill-learning. When I had finished my enthusiastic speech, one of the most seasoned instructors in the audience raised his hand and made his own short speech, which began by conceding that positive reinforcement might be good for the birds, but went on to deny that it was optimal for flight cadets. He said, “On many occasions I ha...
  1  notes

User Cortesoft has a good analogy for this:

"Flip 100 coins. Take the ones that 'failed' (landed tails) and scold them. Flip them again. Half improved! Praise the ones that got heads the first time. Flip them again. Half got worse :(

"Clearly, scolding is more effective than praising."

(source)

See also Regression Fallacy