Question

A discriminative stimulus is a stimulus that __________. select one:

a. provides the organism with a cue that making any of several responses will lead to reinforcement
b. leads a person to discriminate against one group of people based on ethnicity or race
c. cues the person into which schedule of reinforcement is being used in operant conditioning
d. signals the presence of reinforcement.

Answer 1

D is the best answer. Discriminative stimuli will be present in concert with a specific reinforcement, whether positive or negative. This is part of operant conditioning, in which certain behaviors are paired with certain outcomes or reinforcements, and will continue or abate based upon whether or not these reinforcements continue.