A child asks to be allowed to stay up an extra half hour only when his mother is in a good mood. This is an example of
A) acquisition.
B) shaping.
C) stimulus generalization.
D) stimulus discrimination.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of stimulus discrimination, where the child is able to differentiate between his mother's different moods and only makes the request when he knows she is in a good mood. Acquisition refers to the initial learning of a new behavior, shaping refers to gradually molding a behavior towards a desired outcome, and stimulus generalization refers to responding to similar stimuli in the same way as the original stimulus. None of these terms apply to this scenario.

A Child Asks to Be Allowed to Stay Up an Extra