When teaching the use of differential reinforcement schedules to reduce or eliminate behavior, students often struggle with the concepts. At first, I could not figure out why this was, as it seemed obvious that either reinforcing an incompatible or alternative behavior while concurrently placing a behavior to be reduced on extinction, would work. After all, as Skinner pointed out in Science and Human Behavior, differential reinforcement occurs naturally to select and to reinforce adaptive behaviors over maladaptive behaviors in sports, skills, and crafts. This also applies (whether intentionally or not) at the cultural level, and in educational control over various types of behavior.