What defines a discriminative stimulus?

A discriminative stimulus is defined as a stimulus that indicates the availability of reinforcement for a specific behavior. In operant conditioning, discriminative stimuli signal to an individual that a particular response will lead to a desired outcome. For instance, a green light may signal to a driver that it is safe to proceed, thus reinforcing the behavior of driving through an intersection when the light is green.

This concept is critical in understanding how behaviors are learned and modified, as the presence of a discriminative stimulus helps to shape behavior by providing cues about when a certain behavior will be reinforced. In contrast, general feedback or unrelated stimuli do not specifically indicate reinforcement opportunities, and a stimulus used exclusively for punishment does not serve to reinforce a behavior but rather to suppress it. Therefore, identifying stimuli that function as signals for reinforcement is fundamental in behavioral methods within communication disorders and other psychological contexts.