In behavioral psychology (or applied behavior analysis), stimulus control is a phenomenon in operant conditioning (also called contingency management) that occurs when an organism behaves in one way in the presence of a given stimulus and another way in its absence.
What is an operant stimulus?
In operant conditioning, behavior is controlled by external stimuli. For example, a child may learn to open a box to get the sweets inside, or learn to avoid touching a hot stove; in operant terms, the box and the stove are "discriminative stimuli". Operant behavior is said to be "voluntary".
How does operant stimulus control behavior?
Operant stimulus control is typically established by discrimination training. For example, to make a light control a pigeon's pecks on a button, reinforcement only occurs following a peck to the button.
What is an example of stimulus control?
In everyday life, habits are usually performed in the presence of specific cues or circumstances; that is, they are under stimulus control. For example, one might overeat popcorn when the lights go down at the movie theater or light a cigarette when one starts driving a car.
What does the term stimulus control mean?
Stimulus control is a behavioral psychology term that refers to a predictable pattern of behavior in the presence of a certain stimulus, and another pattern in the absence of that stimulus. “Discriminative stimulus” refers to anything that can modify behavior or cause a physical or emotional response.
What is an example of operant behavior?
Operant responses can include everything from a rat's lever press maintained by food, an infant's crying maintained by maternal attention, and small talk maintained by social companionship.
What is operant behavior controlled by?
consequencesOperant behavior is behavior “controlled” by its consequences. In practice, operant conditioning is the study of reversible behavior maintained by reinforcement schedules. We review empirical studies and theoretical approaches to two large classes of operant behavior: interval timing and choice.
Which is the best example of stimulus control?
“Stimulus control is a term used to describe situations in which a behavior is triggered by the presence or absence of some stimulus. For example, if you always eat when you watch TV, your eating behavior is controlled by the stimulus of watching TV. (This can be an important insight to some people.)
What are the three types of stimulus?
excited by three types of stimuli—mechanical, thermal, and chemical; some endings respond primarily to one type of stimulation, whereas other endings can detect all types. Chemical substances produced by the body that excite pain receptors include bradykinin, serotonin, and histamine.
What are 4 examples of a stimulus?
Stimuli include:Irritants.Sights.Smells.Sounds.Temperature changes.
What are the four characteristics of stimulus control?
The behavior occurs immediate when the conditioned stimulus is given. The behavior never occurs in the absence of the stimulus. The behavior never occurs in response to some other stimulus. No other behavior occurs in response to this stimulus.
How do you teach the stimulus control?
One can develop stimulus control through a procedure known as stimulus discrimination training (Cooper, et. al., 2006). This training requires two antecedent stimuli and one behavior. In the presence of the first stimulus, the behavior is reinforced.
What are the three methods of stimulus control transfer?
Prompt fading.Prompt delay.Stimulus fading.
How does stimulus control modify Behaviour?
“Stimulus control is a term used to describe situations in which a behavior is triggered by the presence or absence of some stimulus. For example, if you always eat when you watch TV, your eating behavior is controlled by the stimulus of watching TV. (This can be an important insight to some people.)
How does stimulus affect behavior?
Some stimuli may produce an emotional reaction which may influence the occurrence of behavior. For example, a game of backgammon might be interrupted by news of the unexpected death of a famous politician. A reinforcing stimulus is one that increases the occurrence of behaviors that it follows.
How does operant conditioning strengthen behavior?
BF Skinner: Operant Conditioning According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.
How does a stimulus acquire control?
“A stimulus acquires control only when the responses emitted in the presence of that stimulus produce reinforcement more often than responses in the absence of stimulus” (Cooper, et.
What is stimulus control?
Stimulus controlis a term used to describe situations in which a behavior is triggered by the presence or absence of some stimulus. If a person always eats when watching TV, then (in the operant conditioning use of the term) eating behavior is controlledby the stimulus of watching TV. A student might be talkative with friends but silent in class, ...
Who used stimulus control to encourage his scholarly work?
B.F. Skinner, whose research on operant conditioning led to the concepts in the second half of this chapter, used stimulus control to encourage his scholarly work. He followed a fixed daily schedule. At 4 a.m. he got up and ate breakfast, then he wrote for about five hours.
What is an antecedent in operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, antecedent stimuli are those occurring before a behavior. In a Skinner Box, a light or buzzer might signal that food reinforcement is available. Behaviors of lab animals are easily brought under control of such stimuli, and that is where the concept of stimulus control originated. Antecedents, once noticed, function as ...
What is an S+ stimulus?
An S+ is a discriminative stimulus that tells an animal reinforcement is available. An S- is a discriminative stimulus that tells an animal reinforcement is not available. Animals quickly learn to approach an S+ and avoid an S-. A stimulus is made into an S+ by consistently following it with reinforcement.
How is a stimulus made into an S+?
A stimulus is made into an S+ by consistently following it with reinforcement. For example, one student told how her father tossed a hula-hoop into a fishpond then tossed food inside the ring.
Is time a discriminative stimulus?
Timecan become a discriminative stimulus. For example, students may fidget or begin closing books before the end of a class hour.
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What is stimulus control?
“ Stimulus control is a term used to describe situations in which a behavior is triggered by the presence or absence of some stimulus. For example, if you always eat when you watch TV, your eating behavior is controlled by the stimulus of watching TV.
What is antecedent in operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, antecedent stimuli are those occurring before a behavior. Teachers of operant conditioning sometimes say behavior is controlled by its consequences. That sums up much of operant conditioning, but the statement is incomplete. Antecedents can also control behavior. When they do, it is called stimulus control.
What is the difference between respondent and operant behavior?
In contrast, respondent behaviors are elicited by stimuli (either the US or CS) such as a dog salivating to either the sight of food (US) or the sound of a bell (CS/NS).
Who developed operant conditioning?
Influential on the development of Skinner’s operant conditioning, Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) proposed the law of effect (Thorndike, 1905) which says if our behavior produces a favorable consequence, in the future when the same stimulus is present, we will be more likely to make the response again because we expect the same favorable consequence. Likewise, if our action leads to dissatisfaction, then we will not repeat the same behavior in the future.
How does the shuttle avoidance procedure work?
In what is called the discriminated avoidance procedure an animal is provided with a signal that an aversive event is about to occur but has enough time to engage in a behavior to avoid this event. Such procedures are conducted in what is called the shuttle box or an apparatus consisting of two compartments separated by a wall with an opening at floor level. The animal is placed on the left side, let’s say, and when the trial starts a light or tone occurs (the CS). If the animal moves from the left side to the right side through the opening, then nothing happens, and this is considered an avoidance trial. If it does not move (i.e. it does not engage in avoidance behavior), it receives a shock (US) which continues until the expected behavior occurs (moving to the right side). This is considered an escape trial. The next trial has the rat or mouse starting on the right side and having to move to the left side and then this back and forth behavior continues resulting in what is called shuttle avoidance and represents two-way shuttle avoidance. Of course, the animal could be placed on the same side for each trial, called one-way avoidance. Early in training, the animal makes more escape behaviors but as it learns, it makes more avoidance behaviors. Also, learning is easier in the one-way avoidance paradigm than in two-way shuttle avoidance since in the latter the animal is returned to the side that was previously dangerous.
What is the term for a stimulus that is not reinforced?
Discriminative Stimuli. Sometimes a behavior is reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus and not reinforced when the stimulus or antecedent is not present. These stimuli signal when reinforcement will occur, or not, and are called discriminative stimuli (also called an SD).
How to determine when and how often to reinforce a behavior?
In operant conditioning, the rule for determining when and how often we will reinforce a desired behavior is called the reinforcement schedule. Reinforcement can either occur continuously, meaning that every time the desired behavior is made the person or animal will receive a reinforcer, or intermittently/partially, meaning that reinforcement does not occur with every behavior. Our focus will be on partial/intermittent reinforcement. In terms of when continuous reinforcement might be useful, consider trying to train your cat to use the litter box (and not your carpet). Every time the cat uses the litter box you would want to give it a treat. This will be the trend early in training. Once the cat is using the litter box regularly you can switch to an intermittent schedule and eventually just faze out reinforcement. So how might an intermittent schedule look?
How can a stimulus be generalized?
As a stimulus can be discriminated, so too can it be generalized. Stimulus generalization is when a behavior occurs in the presence of similar, novel stimuli and these stimuli can fall on a generalization gradient. Think of this as an inverted u-shaped curve. The middle of the curve represents the stimulus that we are training the person or animal to respond to. As you move away from this stimulus, to the left or right, the other stimuli become less and less like the original one. So, near the top of the inverted U, a red oval or circle will be like a red octagon but not the same. Near the bottom of the curve, you have a toothbrush that has almost zero similarity to a stop sign.
What did Skinner's experiment show about the rate of response of animals?
Skinner’s development of such a procedure showed that the animal’s rate of response was governed by the conditions that he established as the experimenter and was in keeping with the strict standards of the scientific study of behavior established by Pavlov.
