The discriminative stimulus for punishment or S (Dp)

Abstract

Presents the term discriminative stimulus for punishment and an accompanying symbol S-super(Dp). In describing a study of stimulus control in response-cost punishment with humans, the author notes that there was difficulty in writing a clear and succinct stimulus correlated with punishment conditions without using such a term. The author believes that the adoption of S-super(Dp ) as a discriminative stimulus for punishment would reserve S-super(D ) for reinforcement-only conditions, thus eliminating confusion as well as the need for additional descriptors. Furthermore, use of S-super(Dp ) would obviate the need for a term designating a stimulus correlated with the absence of punishment conditions.