Discrimination Training

Description of the Strategy

Discrimination training involves the use of selective reinforcement and extinction to generate differential responding to two or more stimuli. Training automobile drivers to stop when the light is red and to go when the light is green is an example. The act of responding differentially to stimuli (e.g., different colored lights) is called stimulus discrimination. It is the goal of discrimination training to elicit stimulus discrimination.

The process of discrimination training within laboratory settings involves repeated trials in which two or more stimuli are presented (concurrently or sequentially) and the subject is provided an opportunity to obtain reinforcement, given the presentation of one but not the other. As a result of such training, responding will come to occur in ...