A hungry rat in an operant chamber is reinforced with food after pressing a bar only if a light on the chamber wall is on.If the rat learns to press the bar only when the light is on,this would indicate that the light is a(n)
A) primary reinforcer.
B) discriminative stimulus.
C) negative reinforcer.
D) unconditioned stimulus.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The light is serving as a discriminative stimulus because it signals when the behavior (pressing the bar) will be reinforced with food. The rat has learned to discriminate between the presence and absence of the light in order to receive the reinforcement.

A Hungry Rat in an Operant Chamber Is Reinforced with Food