The removal of something unpleasant to encourage a desired behavior exemplifies:

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The concept described in the question refers to negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus in order to increase the likelihood of a desired behavior being repeated.

For example, if a student studies hard to avoid the unpleasant experience of failing a test, the removal of the anxiety associated with failure encourages continuous studying.

In this process, it is important to note that the focus is on removing something negative to promote a positive behavior, rather than adding a positive consequence to encourage behavior, which would be positive reinforcement. Furthermore, punishment involves introducing an unpleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior and extinction refers to the cessation of a behavior when it is no longer reinforced. Hence, negative reinforcement accurately captures the idea of encouraging behavior through the removal of something undesirable.

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