Stimulus control is said to occur when an organism behaves in one way in the presence of a given stimulus and another way in its absence. For example, the presence of a stop sign increases the probability that "braking" behavior will occur. Typically such behavior is brought about by reinforcing the behavior in the presence of one stimulus and omitting reinforcement in the presence of another stimulus. Many theorists believe that all behavior is under some form of stimulus control. Verbal behavior is a complicated assortment of behaviors with a variety of controlling stimuli.
Read more about Stimulus Control: Characteristics, Stimulus Control in Classical Conditioning, Stimulus Control in Operant Conditioning, Matching To Sample, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words stimulus and/or control:
“Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces—in the beginning, there was spice.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“Who can control his fate?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)