In this example, john's whistling is serving as a discriminative stimulus.
This procedure, studied by Ivan Pavlov, shows a stimulus ( in this case the action of John's whistling) and a response ( the cattle run to the food trough).
Pavlov studied it with dogs. He realised that when a trainer fed them, dogs salivated. So, he presented the dogs with a "stimulus" ( the sound of a metronome) and when he gave the dogs food. After a few repetitions, when the dog listened to the stimulus, it salivated.
In that statement, Jhon functions as a <em><u>discriminatory stimulus.</u></em>
<h2>Further explanation</h2>
Several terms need to be explained in stimulus-response theory in social science, including the following:
A stimulus is an event that occurs both outside and inside the human body that causes a change in behavior.
The response is a change caused by a stimulus.
Encouragement is a strength in someone's din which if it has reached its maximum strength will cause that person to do something. There are 2 (two) types of impulses in humans, namely primary impulse and secondary impulse. Primary impulses are innate drives like hunger, thirst, pain, and sex. Secondary impulses are social motivations and are learned, for example, encouragement for wages, praise, attention and so on.
The stimulus has <em><u>3 functions</u></em>, namely generating, discriminating, and reinforcement. which will be explained below:
Awakening: a stimulus that evokes, is a stimulus that immediately gives a response. For example, food directly raises the saliva of people who see it when hungry.
Discrimination: discriminatory stimulus, is a stimulus that does not directly cause a response but is only a sign of generating stimulus. For example, hearing a whistle. When the bird hears no reaction whatsoever, only after seeing the breeder appear the birds arrive.
Reinforcement: is a stimulus that has positive or negative consequences on the formation of responses. Positive reinforcement is a stimulus that if given will strengthen the response behavior. For example, a child who helps others then gets praise and gifts, so he will tend to repeat the behavior of helping him in the future. Negative reinforcement is a stimulus that if not given or stopped giving, will strengthen the response. For example, a child who is overweight and is always teased by his friend is no longer ridiculed by his friend when he achieves in class / becomes class champion. Then he will repeat and improve his academic achievement.
