After completing his history assignment, nico is excused from having to wash the dishes, a task he detests. nico's parents are attempting to use to increase nico's studying.

Nico's parents are attempting to use a negative reinforcement technique embodied in the operant conditioning framework to increase Nico's studying.

Operant conditioning is a learning mechanism which consists on affecting the strength of a behaviour by reinforcement or punishment, depending if the aim is to increase or decrease it , respectively.

In this example, Nico's parents want him to acquire good studying habits, hence they allow him to quit from tasks he hates at home if he does so, for instance, doing the dishes. Hence, if he does not behave properly he will suffer the consequences and do the dishes. This a negative reinforcement as if the conduct is not appropiate, the response will be the obligation to do a task he hates.  

Negative reinforcement

Explanation:

By this way of doing so, Nico's parents are reinforcing negatively the tasks that Nico had to perform in case he doesn't complete his history assignment.

This is a way to increase productivity and focus.