The discriminative-response function

ABSTRACT Mowrer identified two processes by which discriminative stimuli influence operant behavior. The discriminative-response process involves control of responding by antecedent stimuli. The incentive-motivational process is created by implicit Pavlovian pairing of these SDs with the reinforcer produced by the responding. Most studies in this area involve Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, which measures incentive-motivational effects of stimuli by presenting them on an ongoing of an SDs. Therefore, the discriminative-response process has been neglected. To remedy this, experiments directly manipulated the discriminative-response properties of tone and light SDs while their incentive-motive properties were held comparable. Over groups, the SDs produced an increase, no change, or a decrease in responding. When tone and light were then presented together for the first time in a stimulus-compounding test, response rates were determined by the discriminative-response process. This discriminative-response function is similar to an instrumentally-derived incentive-motivational function, also obtained solely with operant-schedule training. This shows that both processes influence resultant behavior comparably.