discriminative stimulus

(symbol: S^D) in operant conditioning, a stimulus that increases the probability of a response because of a previous history of differential reinforcement in the presence of that stimulus. For example, if a pigeon’s key pecks are reinforced when the key is illuminated red but not when the key is green, the red stimulus will come to serve as an S^D and the pigeon will learn to peck only when the key is red. Compare negative discriminative stimulus.

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Psychology term of the day

December 23rd 2024

narcissistic type

see libidinal types.