PSYB38 Lecture Notes - Stimulus Control, Operant Conditioning, Mental Chronometry
Document Summary
1-antecedent stimuli - stimuli that exist just prior to the occurrence of the behaviour (stimuli are people, objects and events currently present in one"s immediate surroundings) Stimulus control: the degree of correlation between the occurrence of a particular antecedent stimulus and the occurrence of a subsequent response. Impact of antecedent stimuli in the environment on behaviour. If you are in a library, there are already antecedents (eg. atmosphere) in which would reinforce a particular behaviour (whispering, not being loud). The antecedents of the library impacts the way you behave. Discrimination: responding to some antecedent stimuli but not others. Generalization: responding to similar antecedent stimuli in the same manner. Involves discovering when reinforcement is available or unavailable and when aversive events may or may not occur. In most cases, the failure to discriminate will cause you to be inconvenienced. In some cases, behaviour pathology can result from failure to discriminate.
