Whenever Rod sees his Uncle Ben, he smiles and says "Candy, please." Uncle Ben always gives him a Lifesaver. However, Uncle Jim, the dentist, will not give Rod candy when he asks for it. So eventually Rod only asks for candy from Ben, and not from Jim. This is an example of ____.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of stimulus discrimination, as Rod has learned to respond differently to the stimulus of asking for candy based on which person he is interacting with. He has discriminated between the two stimuli (Uncle Ben vs. Uncle Jim) and learned that asking Uncle Ben for candy results in a positive outcome, while asking Uncle Jim does not.

Whenever Rod Sees His Uncle Ben, He Smiles and Says