What is the delta stimulus in psychology

A child is sitting in his father's lap looking at a book. The father tells his son: "Look for the dog" and help the child to touch the dog. When the child plays the dog, the father hugs him and says "yes, exact". The child finds this very pleasant, strengthening himself, so that when the father turns the page and says again "Look for the dog", the child will touch the dog without waiting for the father's guide. If, on the other hand, the child had touched the cat instead of the dog, the father would not have hugged him or verbally reinforced; The behavior of touching the cat is associated with the non -availability of a reinforcement every time the child listens to say "touches the dog". We are then in the presence of a delta stimulus, and in this Psychology-online article we will see What is the delta stimulus in psychology with examples.

1. What is a delta stimulus
2. Examples of delta stimulus in psychology
3. Difference between delta stimulus and discriminative stimulus

What is a delta stimulus

In the discrimination of stimuli, two phases are involved:

1. The first, when there is a discriminative stimulus, the behavior is reinforced.
2. The second, when any other previous stimulus, except the discriminatory stimulus, is present, the behavior is not reinforced. During discrimination training, any previous stimulus present when the behavior is not strengthened is called Delta Stimulus.

He Delta stimulus is defined as "A stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will not be reinforced" (Malott, 2007)^[1]. Indeed, when a stimulus is associated with absence of reinforcement, Delta stimulus is talked about, in the presence of which the behavior is not reinforced.

A Delta stimulus is the one that is present when an answer is being subject to extinction or punishment, and the presence of a delta stimulus will reduce the probability and/or response rate that was punished or extinguished in its presence. ¿What is the function of the Delta stimulus? In general, the delta stimulus works as a sign that indicates that certain response will not be issued.

In the following articles you will find more information about operating conditioning and classic conditioning.

Examples of delta stimulus in psychology

To finish seeing what they are and how delta stimuli work, we will expose some examples:

• During animal training to discrimination, the animal often responds in the presence of stimuli similar to discriminatory stimuli: these similar stimuli are delta stimuli (animal trainers call them "cold stimuli"). But in the end, the response to the Delta stimulus will turn off. Let's take the example of a chicken that has to peck a red circle. The coach makes two cards, one with a red circle and one with a blue circle. Pecking the red circle will be reinforced, which does not happen when pecking the blue circle. At first, the chicken could peck both circles, but if it is reinforced only in the presence of the red circle, in the end it will only occur in the presence of that circle. The blue circle, in this case, would be a delta stimulus.
• Stimulus -based behavior control occurs when the presence or absence of a discriminative stimulus or a delta stimulus controls the performance of particular behavior. For example, The presence of a stop signal (delta stimulus) At a traffic crossing, he warns the driver to stop driving and increases the probability that a "braking" behavior occurs.
• A child expresses a series of disruptive behaviors in the classroom, but only before the presence of a certain teacher, Laura, and not with another teacher, Mariela. In this example, The teacher Mariela is the Delta stimulus.

Difference between delta stimulus and discriminative stimulus

Estimulus understood anything a person can experience through the senses; anything that can be seen, felt, smelled, touched or liked. Several people may experience the same sensations in different ways, and a stimulus that can be pleasant for one, for another it can be irritating or painful. In particular:

• A stimulus can be associated with another event when is followed by reinforcement or punishment; In this case it is considered a discriminative stimulus. In other words, when that stimulus is present, it indicates the availability or possibility of reinforcement or punishment.
• When a stimulus is associated, however, with the NO AVAILABILITY OF A REINFORCEMENT, Then it's called as a condition Delta stimulus.

For example, Although the behavior of saying swear. In this case, the group of friends in a discriminative stimulus, while the family would be a delta stimulus of the behavior "say word".

Also know that it is a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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1. Mallott, r. W. (2007). Principles of Behavior. London: Pearson.