Which of the following decreases the likelihood of a behavior occurring?

Punishment is a behavioral concept used to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring. It is grounded in operant conditioning, where a consequence follows a behavior. When a behavior is followed by a negative consequence (punishment), it reduces the chances of that behavior being repeated in the future.

For instance, if a child touches a hot stove and feels pain, the discomfort acts as a punishment, leading the child to avoid that action in the future. By effectively presenting a negative consequence to an undesired behavior, punishment aims to deter its recurrence.

In contrast, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement actually increase the likelihood of a behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a favorable outcome or reward following a desired behavior, while negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant stimulus when a desired behavior occurs. A conditioned response refers to a learned reaction to a previously neutral stimulus and does not inherently decrease behavior frequencies. Thus, these options do not serve the goal of reducing behavior, making punishment the only correct answer in this context.