Question

Professor Rochelle told her students that if her door was closed it meant that she was unavailable to them and would be angry if they knocked on her door. But if her door was open, it meant that she was in a rare good mood and would answer questions at that time. Professor Rochelle's door being open was a ________ for ________.A. discriminative stimulus; asking questions.B. discriminative stimulus; not asking questions.C. discriminative response; asking questions.D. discriminative response; not asking questions.

Answer 1

Answer: Professor Rochelle's door being open was a (A.) discriminative stimulus for asking questions.

Explanation: A discriminative stimulus is a term used to refer to the act of inducing someone to do a particular thing. In that way, this type of stimulus has the power of influencing an individual's behaviour. Moreover, a discriminative stimulus increases the chances that this individual will act as expected. Therefore, by leaving her door open, Professor Rochelle is inducing her students to ask questions, that is to say that she leaves the door open in order to make her students behave in a particular way, which is to ask questions.