In the Saavedra study, what technique was used to reward the child during the therapy?

In the Saavedra study, the primary technique used to reward the child during therapy was positive reinforcement. This method involves providing a desirable stimulus or reward following a desired behavior to increase the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. In the context of Saavedra's research on a child with a phobia of buttons, a reward was given to encourage the child to interact with the feared object gradually.

By utilizing positive reinforcement, the therapy aimed to reshape the child's emotional responses and associations with buttons, replacing fear with a more positive outlook. This contrasts with negative reinforcement, which would involve the removal of an unpleasant stimulus to increase behavior, or aversion therapy, which typically aims to create a negative association with an undesired behavior. Counterconditioning, while related to changing emotional responses, specifically focuses on pairing a feared object with a pleasant experience rather than using a systematic reward structure.