Operant conditioning from the 1940s?

 I know that debates about reinforcement and punishment often leave high school psychology teachers (and their students) tied in knots, so I post this with some trepidation. But when I spied the picture above on BoingBoing this week I thought - whoa - this has got to be a new example for students to ponder!

I say sewing the lace on the bottom is a great example of negative reinforcement. What say you, gentle readers?

(P.S. No way to know whether the mother here was Mrs. Skinner. I tried in vain to find similar images from the same source.)

-- posted by Steve