Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will discuss a discriminative stimulus for punishment (SDp)
According to Cooper, Heron and Heward, a discriminative stimulus for punishment (SDp) is, “A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been punished and in the absence of which that behavior has not been punished; as a result of this history, the behavior occurs less often in the presence of the SDp than in its absence.”
Simply put an SDp signals that punishment is available. A classic example is that if you see a police car or a sign that says that traffic laws are photo enforced, it signals to you that if you speed at that moment you will get a ticket. When there is no police car or speed camera, you will not get a ticket for speeding.
If a grandmother always punishes Kimberly for stealing cookies and grandma is in the kitchen it is a signal to Kimberly that if she tries to steal a cookie, she will be punished. If grandma is not in the kitchen, Kimberly will not get punished for taking a cookie. (Yes technically grandma could find out later and punish Kimberly. But you get the point!)
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd Edition). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.
