Question

Describe a behavior you engage in, analyze it in terms of the three term contingency, explaining the relationship among the discriminative stimulus(S-D) – behavior – outcome (reinforcer), and how this relationship would be different with S-Delta as the antecedent stimulus condition, vs. S-D. 300 words

Answer 1

Terminologies -

Discriminative stimulus -A stimulus, for which a response is reinforced (S-D).

Behaviour -Operant response, which is being trained to be associated with the stimulus.

Outcome - Reinforcement or punishment for the behaviour exhibited.

S-Delta- A stimulus, for which trained or associated behaviour should not be elicited.

Behaviour - During my school days, the school gets over by 4 pm. There was a manual bell rung by the watchman. It symbolized the end of the day, and we packed our bags and started to leave.

Discriminative stimulus (S-D) - Manual bell

Behaviour -Packing our bags, and leaving the class for the day

Outcome -Behaviour was accepted by the teacher present.

Few schools came up, and were very close to our school. Those had automatic bell system and rung at times, different than that of ours. In the beginning, we exhibited the same behaviour of packing the bags, without noticing the time, when the bell from other school was rung. We were scorned by the teachers. Eventually, we learned to discriminate between our school bell and that of others.

S-Delta -Other school bells.

Though, initially we responded to the S-Delta stimulus, we were eventually trained to discriminate between the discriminative stimulus and the S-Delta.