Giving a person salty foods, or depriving that person of water are examples of:
A)discriminative stimuli
B)unconditioned stimuli
C)direct-acting reinforcers
D)motivating operations

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Giving a person salty foods or depriving them of water can make the person thirsty, which makes water a stronger motivating operation or MO. When an MO is present, the value of a particular consequence (such as access to water) is temporarily increased, increasing the likelihood that the behavior that produced that consequence will be repeated in the future. Discriminative stimuli (A) are events or cues that signal the availability of reinforcement for a behavior that is associated with that stimulus. Unconditioned stimuli (B) naturally elicit a specific response without any learning. Direct-acting reinforcers (C) increase the likelihood of a behavior by directly providing a positive consequence immediately following the behavior.

Giving a Person Salty Foods, or Depriving That Person of Water