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negative stimulus

negative stimulus

1 7.1
Something unpleasant that makes an action less likely
  • noun
translation icon : estímulo negativo

Examples

  • The authors also examined the influence of positive and negative stimulus behavior on relational message interpretations.

    Academic text (2003)
  • For instance, when members of the public treat police officers with a lack of respect and perceive them to be incompetent, such responses may serve as negative stimuli.

    Academic text (2000)
  • There were 16 triads in each of the matched and nonmatched conditions, with 8 involving positive stimulus behavior and 8 involving negative stimulus behavior.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Avoiding a negative stimulus can help improve a child's behavior in school.

  • Receiving criticism can be a negative stimulus that discourages someone from trying again.

  • A loud noise can act as a negative stimulus, causing animals to flee in fear.

Synonyms

aversive stimulus
vsnegative stimulus
  • Specialized
8.0

Something unpleasant that makes a person or animal learn to stay away

is used to reduce a specific behavior rather than teach general avoidance
negative stimulation
vsnegative stimulus
7.7

An unpleasant thing that makes someone feel bad or lose interest

is intentionally applied to reduce a particular behavior rather than cause general discomfort

Antonyms

positive stimulus
  • Specialized
4.6

Something like praise or a reward that makes someone do something again

How Aversive

aversive stimulus
  • Specialized
8.0
negative stimulus
1 7.1
irritant
15 6.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

negative + stimulus

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'negative' (adverse/unpleasant) combined with 'stimulus' (something that triggers a response), yielding a trigger that produces an undesirable effect. This is a regular compositional noun phrase following standard English patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Negative stimulus names a simple idea: a negative (bad or unpleasant) stimulus (something given to a person or animal, like a loud noise or a small shock) that is used to reduce a behavior. So, think of a loud noise after a wrong action — that image explains why it means 'something unpleasant used to reduce a specific behavior'.