PSYC 3451 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Stimulus Control, Classical Conditioning

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3451
• Professor: Bright Terri

Document Summary

Behavior continues in situations in which it has been reinforced in past and stops in situations in which it has not been reinforced or has been punished in the past. Behavior only continues to occur in future when antecedent stimulus is present. Antecedent stimulus present when behavior is reinforced is called discriminative stimulus (sd); process of reinforcing a behavior only when a specific antecedent stimulus is present is called stimulus discrimination training. When sd is present behavior is reinforced and 2. When any other antecedent stimuli except sd are present behavior is not reinforced. During training, any antecedent stimulus present when behavior is not reinforced is call s-delta: so behavior more likely to occur when sd is present and less likely to occur when s-delta is present. Sd does not cause a behavior to occur and does not strengthen behavior; simply increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur because it has been associated with reinforcement in the past.