Which term describes establishing stimulus control, i.e., the response is more likely in the presence of a discriminative stimulus?

• A. Task Analysis
• B. Stimulus Control
• C. Generalization
• D. Maintenance

Answer: (B)

Stimulus control happens when a behavior occurs more often in the presence of a specific cue, because that cue signals that reinforcement is available. The discriminative stimulus serves as a prompt that the response will be reinforced, so the likelihood of the response rises when that cue is present and falls when it isn’t. This establishes a clear contingency: the behavior is controlled by the cue, not the other stimuli around it. Task analysis is about breaking a skill into steps, Generalization is about applying a behavior to new but similar situations, and Maintenance is about keeping the behavior over time. So the term for establishing the cue-driven control of the response is Stimulus Control.