Generally in life I almost only respond to positive reinforcement. Starting in highschool - if a teacher would give me a slightly worse mark to 'motivate' me, I'd get so angry and pouty and generally destructive. Good marks though always helped me wanting to keep them and improve on them.

Its the same now at work - if I receive praise, I want to prove I deserved it and will work so much harder. If however, I feel like someone think I should be working harder of explicitly tells me so (hasn't actually happened I just interpreted something that was said wrong), i will do it - but grudgingly and not as good as after positive reinforcement.

Or with loosing weight. As soon as I feel a guy doesn't like me for my weigh which should be a great motivation to loose some, I can't do anything. Its the worst mental block imaginable. On the other hand when I do feel loved, accepted and attractive, its almost easy.

Now in a bdsm context - to be honest I haven't actually been punished for wrong-doing before. lol i'm a very good girl and well, we haven't been in a true Master/slave relationship for so long.
Positive reinforcement makes me glow with pride though, wanting to get better and better - lol and seriously dreading the day I might disappoing him. Not because I'll get punished but because of the disappointment.

I do think though that this is different for everybody. Depending on the sub - or rather, the person. I'm the kind of person that seeks positive feedback and praise in every aspect of my life (slighly pathetically so) - so this reflects who I am.