A discriminative stimulus is a stimulus that ________.
A) provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain 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) Watson used to make Little Albert scared of all fuzzy things

Question

A discriminative stimulus is a stimulus that ________.
A) provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain 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) Watson used to make Little Albert scared of all fuzzy things

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A discriminative stimulus provides an organism with a cue or signal that a particular response will lead to reinforcement or punishment. It helps the organism to discriminate between different responses and situations. This is an essential concept in operant conditioning. Option B is incorrect as discrimination based on ethnicity or race is a social issue and has nothing to do with operant conditioning. Option C is partially correct, but discriminative stimulus does not cue the person into the schedule of reinforcement, but rather which response will lead to reinforcement or punishment. Option D is incorrect as Little Albert's fear of fuzzy things was created through classical conditioning, not discriminative stimulus.

A Discriminative Stimulus Is a Stimulus That ________