In operant conditioning, what is the term for a stimulus in the presence of which reinforcement is not available?

• A. Discriminative stimulus (S_D)
• B. S-delta (S_Δ)
• C. Unconditioned stimulus (US)
• D. Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the context of operant conditioning, which involves learning through consequences, such as reinforcement or punishment, that influence the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
2. Identify the role of different stimuli in operant conditioning: a discriminative stimulus (S\_D) signals that reinforcement is available if a certain behavior occurs.
3. Recognize that the question asks for the term describing a stimulus that signals reinforcement is NOT available, which is different from the discriminative stimulus.
4. Recall that the stimulus indicating the absence of reinforcement is called the S-delta (S\_\Delta), meaning the behavior will not be reinforced in its presence.
5. Differentiate this from other terms: the unconditioned stimulus (US) and conditioned stimulus (CS) are concepts from classical conditioning, not operant conditioning.