Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Training Practice Test

Discriminative stimulus is an antecedent cue that signals that reinforcement is available for a specific response. It sets the occasion for the behavior to occur because the learner has learned that a particular response will be reinforced in the presence of that cue. The best choice fits this by describing a stimulus, often an instruction or cue, that is presented and must be discriminated from other instructions, signaling when reinforcement is available for the correct response. The other options miss this signaling and discrimination role: one describes a consequence that reinforces a behavior, another points to an internal feeling, and another suggests the stimulus simply elicits a response without the explicit reinforcement-contingency signaling and discrimination element.