Final answer:
Secondary reinforcers, such as money, praise, or stickers, have no inherent value. They become reinforcing through association with primary reinforcers, such as food or water, which satisfy basic survival needs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct statement about secondary reinforcers is that they have no inherent value and acquire their reinforcing properties through their association with primary reinforcers. A notable example is money, which becomes valuable due to what it can be exchanged for, such as basic needs or other secondary reinforcers. Unlike primary reinforcers like food and water, which are inherently valuable for survival, secondary reinforcers like praise, money, or stickers on a behavior chart become valuable through conditioning and social consensus. Secondary reinforcers—and indeed secondary punishments—operate in the realm of operant conditioning, where behaviors are influenced by the consequences that follow them. To clarify, a caveman would likely have no response to these secondary reinforcers as the value they hold is culturally and contextually derived and not linked to innate survival needs.