 I think we'll start this out with the demo. We want to know what changes you're going to have. You can't survive a bit loud. You grab by the function. We might be wrong. We're funny. It's bright. We're going to come back to this issue because this is stimulus control. Anyway, so we know you've all been waiting for the video on stimulus control because it's hands down the absolute easiest content in the entire behavior analytic literature. I think it's easier than reinforcement. I mean, because stimulus control is just it's just that it's stimulus control, right? So in fact, it's so easy that once you know it you'll realize that you don't know it and it becomes completely confusing. It's that easy. It's one of those wickedly conceptually simple topics that are unbelievably complex when you dig into them. So I suppose we should dig into them and make a complex topic easy again or not or we'll completely confuse the whole damn thing and you'll be right where I'm at and then we're all good because everybody's confused and misery loves company. So anyway, stimulus control, let's start out with the basics. First off, it is about the stimulus but it's not. See, I've already screwed it up, right? No, I'm kidding. No, it wasn't. Damn it. How do I organize this in a way that makes sense for you? We need to think about a couple of things with regard to stimulus control. The first thing you want to think about is that we're talking about antecedent variables, behaviors that happen or stimuli that come or behavior, right? So antecedents, behaviors, consequences. We're going to talk about these things over here when we're talking about stimulus control. So, namely, we're going to talk typically we're going to talk about what is it? Discriminative stimuli, often written as an SD, so it'd be in superscript, so SD, or something called an S-delta, right? Which the Greek letter delta is symbol delta, whatever you say is in the superscript. So SDs are what most of us think about when we think about stimulus control. You should also think about S-delta, so we'll get into all that stuff in a second, but actually there's another issue here that we have to start to address too, which we'll come back to in maybe a minute or two here, depends on how wordy I get, which would be establishing operations or abolishing operations. So the motivation, all right, the motivational factors, those are actually parts of stimulus control as well. So because those stimuli happen before the behavior, I know it doesn't always seem like it, but remember, motivating operations affect values of reinforcers among other things, right? So that's happening before the three-term contingency kicks in place, and once that three-term contingency is running, then you've already have that reinforcer present, so you've affected the value of that. So the motivating operations happen beforehand. Again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. So let's go back to the word stimulus control. I think one of the easiest confusions that people make about our field is that the external stimuli are actually in control of your behavior. So a lot of times when we write the three-term contingency, we say stimulus, I mean, sorry, SD, whatever, so stimulus, the response, and another stimulus, the consequence, okay? So when we say stimulus control, it kind of makes you think that this stimulus has all the power, right? It really doesn't, okay? It's just it just sounds that way. This is not respondent conditioning. Respondent conditioning, the first stimulus, so the conditioned stimulus or the unconditioned stimulus, and respondent conditioning, those things elicit a response, they pull a response out of you, okay? In operant conditioning, we don't have that. That first stimulus is more of a signal, right? And this is where we start to get nuanced. So bear with me. I'm going to go with the traditional part first. Stimulus control, when we're thinking about discriminative stimuli, we're saying that in the presence of this stimulus, a particular behavior, this one, will receive reinforcement. So really what the SDE does is it signals to the organism that a reinforcer is available. Signals to you that reinforcement is about. It's here if you, only if you engage in the appropriate response, you will earn your reinforcers, right? That's what it says. It's really exciting, and it's awesome, and it should make you happy. And that's it. It doesn't elicit a response. Some people will say it evokes a response. I kind of like the language where it talks about it. It encasions a response. It seems like, I don't know, it seems like I need tea or something when I say that. But if it encasions a response, it means that the response that would be reinforced is the occasion has been set for that response to occur, if you will, right? So you get the idea. So discriminative, I'm sorry, and SDELTA is very closely related, but very different. It's a stimulus that signals that no reinforcement is available, right? I'm trying to come up with one off the top of my head. They're so obvious that they're hard to come up with examples for. So discriminative stimulus, again, signals that reinforcement is available, and SDELTA signals that one is not. If you look at our SDELTA video on our channel, there's a really good, clear applied example of what happens at a basketball game when an SD versus an SDELTA is present, okay? So take a look at that one, and you'll understand it's a great, great video. I don't want to go over a whole other 5 minutes worth of example. So, I think we're square on that part. SD signals that reinforcement is available, SDELTA signals that reinforcement is not available. In other words, it signals that a particular behavior will be on extinction if you engage in that response. Shh, don't tell anybody that little trick. Alright, let's see. That gets us to the real bugger of the field. I just, I don't even, I... I've got to do this quickly. Are you ready? Alright, we have to discriminate between the differences of motivating operations and discriminative stimuli. How do you do that? Well, let me tell you, it's really simple, kind of, but it's confusing. You ready? Discriminative stimuli. The response has to happen in the presence of that stimulus more often than not, right? So, in other words, reinforcement has to be present for that particular behavior with that particular stimulus present. That's part one, compared to when that particular stimulus is not present. So, if you're engaging in a behavior, right, it has to have the potential of occurring under at least two different conditions. One condition with a stimulus present, one condition without that stimulus present. The rate of responding has to be different in each one of those in order for us to say that this initial stimulus was a discriminative stimulus. The dirty little secret is that we call every damn thing a discriminative stimulus, but don't tell anybody I told you that, please, because they're probably going to get me in trouble for it. We think we know what STs are, but if you've read any of Michael, Jack Michael, I promise you, you'll be completely convinced that you don't know anything about STs. It's just the way it is when you read Jack Michael, because he's so awesome. And if you're watching Jack, keep it up. It's great work. So, let's see. The other piece is the motivation, right? So, motivational things happen before the stimuli, before the response happens, and you're actually looking at one of those right now, okay? These things, right? Sunglasses. So, it's both a good example and a bad example. So, there's lots of examples with shock and or other types of applied examples out there where escape and aggression, there's all sorts of great examples. So, I'm going to do my best to give you one here. So, I'm going to sneak out right here, okay? I'm going to stand right here. Ignore where I'm standing kind of because it has a good effect. So, the behavior we're going to look at is putting on sunglasses, okay? The only time, I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself. Damn it. All right. So, here we go. I'm in the sun, all right? So, now I'm experiencing this particular stimulus. Is the sun, is that a stimulus, like an SD, or is that a motivating operation? In other words, is it an establishing operation? Will it evoke my putting on sunglasses? Well, in the strictest sense, in the most basic sense, within the absence of all other information, we're not working with discriminative stimuli here, working with motivating operations. Why? Because, theoretically, I would not wear sunglasses except in the presence of the bright sun or other bright things, like snow or something like that, right? So, then wearing sunglasses in any other context would not there would be no behavior. I wouldn't do it. As a result, it can't possibly be discriminative stimuli. The sun could be a discriminative stimuli. In that example, and it's a very narrow example because the moment you start to think about other things regarding my sunglasses wearing, you're going to start to talk yourself into the fact that maybe it is an SD and this is where it gets confusing, because it is. So, but at its core, if we're only focusing on being in the sun, I would not put my sunglasses on in other contexts, right? As a result, it can't possibly be a discriminative stimulus, the sun. Why? At least in this example. Simply because I wouldn't engage in this behavior at a lower rate without the presence of that stimulus. So, there's more to it. Read carefully. Be very cautious. SDs come before responses. They don't own the response. All they do is signal that a reinforcement is available for a particular response. And there's some differences between motivation and operations and discriminative stimuli, and so be aware of those. But it's easy and it's tricky all at the same time. I hope I've made it as clear as mud as one of my favorite professors used to say. Take care. If you like the way it is, and you want it to continue, what it is, what it was, and what it shall be. If you want that, then like, subscribe, and share, please. 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