Customer Reviews

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, As, Praise, and Other Bribes

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

So I wanted my students to learn how to read notes on the staff. I had a fun idea to use "notes" to spell words and then the students would decipher the notes to figure out what the words are. I was concerned about them being motivated to do the assignment, so I turned it into a game and use jolly ranchers to reward the team that comes up with the words the fastest. Guess what? As soon as the jolly ranchers were rewarded, the students lost interest. Also, the kids were more concerned about fairness and cheating then the actual activity. More over, certain students took over the competition and other students relied on their already exisiting expertise to win them the jolly rancher.

I tried a different tactic the next period. I decided to promise them the jolly rancher regardless of the outcome, but I still wanted to play the game. I still got much of the same.

That night I picked up this book and read a good deal of it. I decided to put Kohn's ideas to the test. The next day, I pointed the kids to the materials, showed them basically how to do it and set them on their way. No games. No Jolly Ranchers. Nothing. Guess what? All students were learning and involved, students who finished came up to me and asked what to do. They were more than happy to either help other students or figure out more words, or create their own. A complere 180. True, there were plenty who asked, "Do we have to do this?" or "What do we get when we finished?" Which just reinforced for me Kohn's notion that kids have become addicted to rewards.

Does this book show you how? No. Thus the 4 stars and not 5. But it does point you in the right direction.

As for other's assertion that Kohn has oversimplified behaviorism and used research to his own ends: The point isn't whether Kohn has oversimplified it, and Kohn says as much. The point is that the people who are PRACTICING IT AS GOSPEL have oversimplified it. I believe Kohn realizes rewards are necessary, just not the rewards/reinforcement that have been in use. Learning is its own reward. If this wasn't true, why would these people who reviewed the book have read it? Were they paid to read it? Were they promised a pat on the head if they read it? Love is its own reward. Meaningful debate/discussion is its own reward. Generosity is its own reward. Using these as your reinforcers will bring results.

Hope this helped...

I come at this book as an educator and as someone who has spent a lot of time grading students and helping them navigate the treacherous waters of the standardized testing game. This was on the bookshelf of the tutoring center where I work and I thought I'd see what this man's case was.

For the most part, I found this to be an intentional counterbalance to business as usual. It appears that there are a great many reviewers with the psychology background to assess how he may set up BF Skinner as a straw man to strike down. I'm not sure it's necessary to set up Skinner as a man to strike down. I do agree with Kohn, however, that "pop behaviorism" and incentive driven behaviors are pervasive in our culture. Incentive plans in business, grades at school, and rewards at home are commonly thought of strategies for management. Kohn consistently attacks the abuses and excesses of incentives and gives a coherent framework for what makes rewards wrong, focusing on how relationships are fragmented and creativity and attention are undermined. As a teacher who has seen grade obsessed students in tutoring and classroom situations, any book that provides philosophical and psychological research to advocate for intrinsic learning is welcomed.

Readers should be aware that this is a *very* radical book. Like other radicals, Kohn is probably better at ripping down the capitalist, or in this case incentive-based, order than in building something up to replace it with. Kohn wants us to reason with people and clearly communicate agreed upon objectives. Has Kohn ever tried to implement these strategies in a classroom of 35-40 urban students? I believe that he would argue we should have smaller class sizes that we could value intrinsic motivation, but I question whether he would be living in the real world at that point. There are some valuable bullet points in the final 80-100 pages of the book where he advocates for strategies. Maybe his other works go at that side. Fundamentally, though he asks us to get away from our American focus on ends such as profits, grades, and behavioral complicity from our children. That makes this book truly radical and I am still weighing in my own mind how convinced I am about the pragmatic value of this book.

I think this book is valuable reading about the dangers of using rewards without thought for the long-term consequences of those rewards. I caution readers from joining Kohn wholeheartedly for in many ways, he seems to me to be a counterconsultant rather than an established educator with unassailable results or a business leader who has built a business implementing his principles. Now that I think of it, I yearned for the long term narratives of success stories where I could interpret details. He does cite a lot of research studies in support of his views, but I am not enough of a psychologist to ascertain whether I am fully convinced of the value in embracing the risks inherent with embracing his views full force.

Stay tuned. I might edit this one and say this has been a paradigm altering book that leads me away from keeping test prep as part of my personal mission. As it stands, I consider this a book that has helped me by raising some unresolved questions in my mind.

4 stars.

--SD

Punished by Rewards is a thought provoking book written for a general audience that argues that use of rewards undermines efforts to teach students, manage workers, or raise children. About one third of the book is devoted to educational issues, one third to parenting concerns, and one third to business concerns. This review is from an educator's perspective.

In this well-researched book, Alfie Kohn takes on the educational establishment dominated by experts who advise behavioristic classroom management plans. He challenges many current classroom management practices such as the contingent use of stickers, prizes, parties, gold stars, grades, honor rolls, awards assemblies, and praise. Any teacher working on improving classroom management and motivating students will benefit from reading this refreshingly original and persuasive book and will have a new perspective on some entrenched educational practices that often go unquestioned. As the author says, you don't have to accept everything he says to see the value in making some changes.

Kohn's central thesis is that it is misguided for teachers (and parents and bosses also) to rely on extrinsic motivators and reinforcers to assure quiet, orderly classrooms and manipulate students to behave in ways that are for the teacher's convenience. It is well acepted that punishment is not a way to motivate students. He contends that punishment and rewards are merely two sides of the same coin--and the coin doesn't buy much. Both approaches are applied and popularized behaviorism, a theory attributed to B. F. Skinner and his followers. Citing current research, he backs up his idea that rewards only succeed in the short term. Changes usually do not persist when there are no more "goodies" to be won. Many studies he cites show that performance is not improved and may actually be impaired by use of reward strategies.

Rewards fail for five reasons. First, rewards punish and control by seduction. The failure to win a reward or the threat to remove a reward is functionally identical to the threat to employ a punishment. Second, rewards rupture relationships both vertically (student/teacher) and horizontally (student/student). Both rewards and punishment are really about someone maintaining power and control over another and they induce a behavior pattern whereby the subordinate tries to curry favor and impress the rewarder rather than encourage a relationship of trust and openness. Also, rewards lead to destructive competition. Third, employing rewards can change superficial behavior effectively, but it ignores the underlying reasons for the problem behavior and so does not effect long-term change. Rewards are not solutions, they are gimmicks, shortcuts, quick fixes that mask problems. Fourth, rewards discourage risk taking, creativity, and taking on challenges because the task is now just something that stands in the way of gaining the prize. Finally, and most tragically, rewards change the way people approach the task. To reward someone for something that many find intrinsically interesting and enjoy doing is to destroy motivation. For example, the Pizza Hut "Book It" reading incentive and summer library reading incentive programs are, according to Kohn, very destructive. Reading is presented not as a pleasurable experience, but as something one has to be bribed to do with a food reward or other token.

Kohn devotes an entire chapter to the proposition that praise itself can have toxic effects upon the recipient. Praise is often given for the convenience of the praiser and to manipulate the recipient. It can impede performance by signaling low ability, making people feel pressured, inviting a low-risk strategy to avoid failure, and reducing interest in the task itself. Children can be hooked on praise and become too extrinsically motivated, too dependent upon approval from others. Kohn offers five or six solid and practical strategies for employing encouraging words and providing feedback without praising. This chapter of the book is eye opening, especially for parents.

So what is the alternative to manipulation by praise and tangible rewards? That depends upon the goals one wishes to achieve and the problem to be solved. Unlike the behaviorist method, the Kohn method offers no quick, easy solution to classroom management and student motivation problems. To his credit, Kohn devotes the last third of his book to addressing how to get beyond rewards. He fits himself into the constructivist philosophy with his emphasis on learning as discovery, enhancing student control and choice through class meetings, encouraging collaboration and revising content to follow students' natural interests. He points out that young children learn naturally because they are curious about how the world works. They are always seeking to solve their own questions to make sense of their world. Schools need to rethink curriculum and content. Teachers need to rethink whether they really need the control they seek with behavior management plans.

Teachers will find this book very useful. After explaining the theoretical underpinnings of his position, Kohn has many useful examples of the negative results from using reward strategies. Yet Kohn is realistic and recognizes that even if one agrees with him, change will take a long time. He presents many interim strategies teachers can use to reduce the negative impacts of entrenched practices and recognizes that teachers cannot single-handedly effect change if their entire school system depends upon manipulation through rewards. He recognizes that teachers are often judged by their superiors in ways that encourage them to go with the cheap behaviorist tricks that offer temporary solutions. He offers many specific ways teachers can slowly reduce their own dependence on such tactics.

In conclusion, this book offers a useful guide for action for any teacher who recognizes the limitations of the behaviorist methods in place in almost every classroom in America. For those who are unconvinced, Kohn says he'll be satisfied if they are at least questioning their teaching, parenting, or supervising after they close the book. In a sincere yet lighthearted way he invites the reader to "Ride my train as far as you can and get off when you have to. Maybe later you'll hop aboard again, a little closer to'working with' than 'doing to' and we can continue the journey." Interested readers will find it easy to continue journeying with Kohn as he is a prolific author of both books and articles and maintains a website.

This is a useful book, summarizing in accurate fashion, the empirical and theoretical literature on the issue of rewards and intrinsic motivation. I can recommend it to those seeking a staring point into the literature.

This, however, is contested by another reviewer, who instead recommends a recent work by Cameron and Pierce.

Unfortunately, the book recommended - written by Cameron and Pierce - is an inaccurate and seriously misleading text on the subject. In a study by the leading researchers in the area of rewards and intrinsic motivation (Deci et al, in the Review of Educational Research, Spring 2001, Vol 71, No 1, pp 1-27 and pp.43-51), the arguments of Cameron and Pierce that inform the analysis of this book were found to (a) use inappropriate control groups, (b) misclassify studies (unsurprisingly, this is always to the benefit of C&P's arguments), (c) use improper measures of intrinsic motivation, (d) include irrelevant experimental conditions and exclude relevant ones, (e) collapsed significantly different experimental conditions without proper moderation (pp. 44).

In short, C&P presented an analysis of data that was "scientifically inappropriate" (p.46) at best, and of questionable motivation at worst (particularly given C&P's apparent inability to learn from their mistakes, or to correct misleading or incorrect statements in work that has stretched over 7 years). Work that massages the data, choosing studies if they support their already formed conclusions and rejecting studies if they go against them, works that ignore large chunks of the argument of researchers who have argued for different conclusions are of little value if you are looking for the facts of the effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation.

You don't have to believe me - have a look for yourself. All of this is documented in a series of debates in The Psychological Bulletin, vol 125, No 6, pp 627-668 for Deci et al's original review, and pp. 692-700 for their critiques of the C&P methodology. Further, these critiques were corroborated by a team of researchers from Stanford University, again, in The Psychological Bulletin, 1999, Vol 125, No 6, 669-676. In a study that supported the findings of Deci et al, from above, the Stanford team stated unequivocally that the method used by C&P
- produces "simplistic overall conclusions" (p.674),
- "tells us essentially nothing about the phenomenon of the actual literature under review [the literature of the effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation, that is]" (p.672),
- that it is precisely the use of this inappropriate method that "produced the anomalous conclusion that negative effects of extrinsic rewards are merely a myth" (pp.672-673).

Hardly a ringing endorsement of the Cameron and Pierce work.

If you want an appropriate reference beyond the Kohn book, my advice would be to start with the Deci et al Review of Educational Research article above. I found it useful and clearly written. I'd advise you to give the Cameron and Pierce's work a miss: from its selective and scientifically inappropriate massaging of the data right down to its conclusions that fly in the face of the "very robust" findings of an intrinsic motivation literature that is now "very large" (from the Deci critique of C&P, p.698, above), it is a seriously misleading body of writing that is likely to confuse even a sophisticated reader.

Alfie Kohn, in his book Punished by Rewards, uses extensive documentation to support his conclusion that behaviorism is an ineffective tool when dealing with people, whether employees, students, or children. He argues that the using the carrot method of "do this and you'll get that" leads to extrinsic motivation, where the reward is obtained by any means. This leads to less intrinsic motivation and people ultimate lose interest or care about the quality of work, or amount of learning achieved. He seems to want to over-turn the mainstream theory that the only way to achieve success is by one person over-powering another through their authority and bribes. Current beliefs in education include: teacher-centered classrooms, behavior-management programs, and learning achieved through bribes and grades. Mr. Kohn wishes to completely change this method of thinking, and instead create a "3C" classroom, with: collaboration, content, and choice. These classrooms eliminate rewards as the basis for learning, and instead create classrooms where kids want to learn for the sake of knowledge itself. The teachers and students work together, often through cooperative learning groups, to obtain knowledge and understanding relevant and interesting to the students in their day-to-day lives.

I think that Mr. Kohn's theory was well researched, explained, and is believable. He clearly explains the basic problem existing throughout American society with the use of rewards. As a future teacher, thinking about ideas to use in the classroom, I am eager to try his methods with "kids today." I would definitely recommend this book to anyone dealing with kids, who wants them to start caring about each other, or the material they are learning, rather than just doing the work to get the "A" and then forgetting about it. I support his assessment of education strategies today, especially the honors students on the "fast-track" to college. Having just graduated with such a group, I know all about the all-night crams, cheating, copying, and generally doing anything besides learning the material to obtain the grade. Although I agree with the problem he addresses, I wonder if his solution of a school without grades is feasible. He does not require this as part of his "formula for success," merely suggests it. Additionally, I would like to see the argument and supporting evidence against his theory. Obviously, he believes that the mainstream theory does this constantly in the real world, so he need not show the opposite side. However, I was left wondering what studies and success stories the behaviorists might pull out to prove his theory wrong.

Overall, I believe that each teacher needs to create an individual learning environment in his or her classroom. Creating a "perfect mold" for all successful teachers will lead to cookie-cutter teaching. The diversity of American teaching should be as diverse as American society. Teachers need to sort through the various theories and beliefs, and pick out those which best suite their style and ability of teaching. No matter how revolutionary and possibly effective Mr. Kohn's theories might be, some teachers may simply fail when trying to implement them. This does not make them bad teachers, only people with different beliefs on what education is and how to effectively relate learning to students. I, however, hope to find a way to implement Mr. Kohn's ideas in my classroom, because I think that some of them might help me move my students from empty minds to fill with knowledge into excited and active learners.

Alfie Kohn, In his book Punished by Rewards, makes some very useful observations in opposition to using rewards to reinforce behavior. He has, however, discussed some very arguable points somewhat dogmatically. One premise that I adhere to, is one that Kohn fails to point out: some motivation is naturally intrinsic, and yet some activities will not inspire intrinsic motivation, nor are some of these activities worthy of such motivation.

In discussing children and rewards Kohn has made some faulty assumptions. Firstly, he has assumed that all controlled behaviors lead only to a response, not a learned and habitual behavior, even when the reward is removed. In reality rewards can truly teach a motivation that may, in fact, become intrinsic. In essence Kohn is ironically supporting, rather than refuting (as he claims) Skinner's "repertoire of behaviors" theory.

Secondly, he cites studies that are ill applied to children and rewards. Many of his studies attempt to "bribe" intelligence when this is obviously not possible. No amount of reward can cause a child to develop a skill of which he is simply not capable (p. 42). Motivation yes, skill, no. Extrinsic motivation, clearly, but there is nothing inherently wrong with disliking an activity that requires extrinsic motivation.

Thirdly, Kohn implicitly asserts that ultimate motivation can only be intrinsic or extrinsic, not both. I personally am motivated intrinsically to learn. But extrinsically, I am motivated to work towards and read the information necessary to earn high grades, whether they be in the form of A's, B's, or checks and check-plus'. In this situation, which, I feel, is more prevalent than Kohn would like to admit, rewards would be extremely beneficial since the instructor could use external motivators to skillfully guide the already (intrinsically) motivated student, regardless of age. With this last statement in mind I will not deny the claim that extrinsic motivators can, to some degree, undermine intrinsic motivation, especially when used improperly. A teacher, or parent, must be sure to use rewards in the proper context and not without discrimination.

Finally, the premise that all things merit intrinsic motivation hereby rendering all extrinsic motivators evil, is simply not true. Rarely will you find a student who will tell you that all of the subjects are his favorite. He is likely to dislike at least a few of his classes, but this is commonplace. It is also normal that all people are intrinsically motivated, but at different activities or subjects. The truth of this premise is important since Kohn does not address it, or avoids it altogether.

Kohn's assessment of incentives in the workplace is on target. Grown people, people who know the difference between right and wrong, people whose intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have long since jelled, are more apt to view incentives as a way to manipulate their production in the workplace. This differs from children since children must be taught that certain actions will bring certain consequences. Adults, to a large degree, already possess this knowledge. An adult knows, for example, what will happen if he places his hand on a hot stove. A young child must learn this. Kohn's assertion that the adult level of consciously recognizing the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is present, is correct. His assertion of the same for children is incorrect. Piaget has asserted that most young children, specifically infants, simply do not understand, or have, intrinsic motivation other than eat, drink, and sleep. Motivation to engage in different activities will grow as the child's reasoning develops. I use the word reasoning simply because I feel that the power to reason and the power to be intrinsically motivated, to do things adults consider important, studying, learning, thinking, etc, develop in parallel. Kohn would seemingly agree as he asserts that children feel that they are worth less if extrinsic motivators are exercised. This "feel" we can safely assume would also mean "reason." The cognitive process of feeling worthless as a result of something you perceived as extrinsic would, no doubt, require reason. Therefore the simple difference is that incentives will not produce worthy results when implemented on adults simply because adults can "see through" our intentions and can easily identify with our "reasoning" for applying extrinsic motivators, thus feeling manipulated or controlled, as Kohn has pointed out.

In the last few chapters Kohn did present some very worthy ideas. Encouraging children, praising the action, not the child, and various active learning strategies are definitely worth implementing. One that is not however, is his suggestion of using checks, and check-plus' for grading. Soon these would be understood, for what they really are (grades in disguise), and a Kohn-esque author would publish a book suggesting letter grades as opposed to the high-pressure checks and check-plus'. One suggested strategy that would appear very useful is that of de-emphasizing grades (or any type of grade mark) and putting less pressure on the student to perform. Moving about the classroom, working in groups, and utilizing more than one modality are all effective ways of learning and should be developed by all educators .

Bottom line is that Kohn gives no credit to teachers and parents in that he assumes a reward is given with no attempt at explanation and reasons for obeying. This is simply not so. Most parents and teachers will explain to a student first, then enforce or re-enforce with punishment and rewards. One should, however, be careful how rewards are used as Kohn is convincing when he argues that they can be damaging. However, I feel that use with a young child could prove effective providing the reward is removed once the child begins to show signs of higher reasoning abilities and an understanding of more challenging concepts. Kohn's warnings should be read by teachers and should be heard by parents, but should also be taken with a grain of salt. It might suffice to say that I would not want to teach Kohn's children nor would I look forward to his parent-teacher conference.

The author introduces a view of extrinsic rewards that is totally different from what most people have known. Kohn suggest that competition and reward are unhealthy and will deter motivation. He contends that rewards are bribes and used as a method to control people. To substantiate his stand against pop-behaviorism, Kohn examines the reward systems in the classroom. He offers many references and support in his aim to prove that the use of rewards is counterproductive in the classroom, workplace and at home. Kohn's ideas differ greatly from "mainstream" thinking about education. Devoting chapter 6 to the praise problem, Kohn suggests that praise benefits the giver rather the recipent, causing an imbalance in power. Most classroom teachers have been taught to be in control of their students. This chapter goes against the praise-and-ignore approach that Brophy views as helpful in classroom management. Also, inclusive classrooms are a fast-growing concept in education. Many approaches that Kohn suggest in this book may not apply to the children with behavior problems that are in our classrooms now. These students need praise and some form of a reward system. Futhermore, I strongly disagree with Kohn's attitude on the Book-It program. The most important journey that my first graders embark upon is "learning to read". During their journey, they participate in the Book-It program. Kohn is opposed to this literacy awareness program that offers a pizza slip to each child that reaches his/her goal each month. Contrary to Kohn's belief that the child will stop reading once the pizza slips stop, this program actually intensifies their desire to become readers. Another dominate practice in schools that Kohn opposes is the grading system. He indicates that report cards and grades alter a students' performance, citing that when you grade students, their interest in what they are doing declines. Ask a teacher how beneficial a grading system is in keeping track of a childs' performance. As a college student returning to school for licensure, grades are an important motivating factor for me. Although I do oppose most of Kohn's beliefs, I recommend this book to all people that work with children. Kohn provides an alternative approach that we may not have ever considered. The reader is given a controversial look at the system of rewards that is so familiar to us. His references of interesting experiments analyze how we should approach and react to different situations, such as competition. While we consider some competition to be healthy for a child, Kohn discourages competing due to the consequences of losing. But in the real world, sometimes losing is inevitable. However, we should all agree with Kohn's stance on collaborative learning. He emphasizes the success of cooperative grouping in the classroom, which is a fairly new concept. American education is flowing with diverse prospectives that reflect a growing, changing world. The more open-minded an educator is to new ideas, the more valuable that person will be to our society. One should never be so comfortable with his/her own view to the point that creativity is threatened. Beverly E. Smith, 10/23/99

This book is more suited for academic pursuits than a practical guide on how to change your incentive programs.

The book is about 400 pages long, of which 2/3 is spent poking holes against how incentive programs do not work for long term, meaningful behavioral changes. He builds up a great proof. However, if you buy into thesis, you don't need to devle into the bowels of the detailed arguement he presents.

So after the author has you turned around to his point of view, you began to ask, "Then what? What can I change?" It's on this point the author falls short. He has a couple of lame ideas, but no concrete solutions to help you change your actions. His overall solution is to make the job or objective so interesting and challanging that it's unnecessary to bribe. This works for some tasks, but not for others.

Get this book if you're intersted in the subject. However, skip this book if your looking for a practical guide on how to design better incentive programs or how to raise your kids differently.

As a teacher, I have always argued that we need to maintain high
grade standards in order to motivate our students to do their
best work. The assumption behind my position is that students
want to get A's and will work to avoid F's (at least most will).

This doesn't seem too radical. As parents, we make similar
assumptions. We reward our children when they behave in ways we
approve, and we punish them when they misbehave. We might argue
about whether spanking is a good punishment or whether sending a
high school student to his or her room is effective, but we agree
about the efficacy of rewards and punishment.

Employers and supervisors would agree. We reward our employees
with pay raises when they do a good job; some jobs even provide
merit pay for their for the best workers.

But after reading Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn, I have some
reservations. According to Kohn, rewards are not only
ineffective; they even prevent the behavior we want to encourage!

The book starts off with a review of the psychological school of
determinism and the work of B.F. Skinner. It's a bit technical
here, but it is clearly enough written that most readers can wade
through it with no problems. Then comes the heart of the argument
- offering rewards is actually counter-productive.

In one study, for example, pre-kindergarten children were given
the chance to draw with Magic Markers, something almost all
children love to do. When one group was told they would receive
gold stars if they drew pictures, however, their interest seemed
to drop, and when the gold star rewards were withdrawn, many of
the children quit drawing! The reward took the pleasure out of
the task, making it a job that was done only for the sake of the
reward.

What does this say about our summer reading programs, where we
give students hamburgers (or other rewards) for reading. Will it
make reading less desirable? What happens when parents give their

children dessert as a reward for eating their Brussel Sprouts?
(One experimenter did try to rewards students with Brussel
Rewards when they ate their cake, but the children didn't fall
for that one!)

The same phenomenon occurs in the workplace. Employees who are in
merit pay programs often indicate that their interest in the work
they do drops off, and indeed the quality often falls off after a
few months of the merit pay program.

So what's the solution? Ah, here is the weakness, as Kohn himself

admits. If the high school were to tell our students that we
wanted the joy of learning to be their reward, I fear the vast
majority would quickly find other joys instead! The enthusiasm
that kindergarten children often exude ("Guess what we learned
today!") gets lost somewhere along the way. We can't simply drop
our reward/punishment schemes without carefully considering how
we will restructure our homes, schools, and jobs.

This is a book that parents, teachers, and employers will all
find interesting. It should cause some interesting debates.

I had the incredible oportunity of hearling Alfie Kohn speak in Sag Harbor New York. Me and my wife went with two other couples, one of which is much more conservative then us. We were ALL moved to tears during his talk. It is one of those experiences where someone says something that you have known all of your life but never said or had said to you. I higly reccomend any of his book and especially the new one "Unconditional Parenting". If you want to be liberated from doing what you "think" (or have been conditioned to believe) is right and have the freedom to do what "feels" right with your children then I am sure you will like this book. I reccomend his books to all of the parents of children I treat.