What term defines a relationship in which one event will not occur unless another event happens first?

What term defines a relationship in which one event will not occur unless another event happens first?

• A. Response contingency
• B. Extinction
• C. Generalization
• D. Pavlovian conditioning

Answer: (A)

In this idea, events are linked so that one event happens only if another event occurs first. That dependency between a behavior and its triggering condition is called a response contingency. It captures the notion that the response is not emitted in isolation but is contingent on a preceding cue or condition being present, with the typical follow-up consequence (like reinforcement) tied to that response. For example, a dog will perform a scent-detection behavior only after the handler provides the cue that signals it should start searching, and reinforcement is delivered for the correct response. The other terms don’t describe this prerequisite relationship: extinction involves stopping reinforcement and decreasing a behavior; generalization means applying a learned response to similar stimuli; Pavlovian conditioning (classical conditioning) is about pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

In this idea, events are linked so that one event happens only if another event occurs first. That dependency between a behavior and its triggering condition is called a response contingency. It captures the notion that the response is not emitted in isolation but is contingent on a preceding cue or condition being present, with the typical follow-up consequence (like reinforcement) tied to that response.

For example, a dog will perform a scent-detection behavior only after the handler provides the cue that signals it should start searching, and reinforcement is delivered for the correct response. The other terms don’t describe this prerequisite relationship: extinction involves stopping reinforcement and decreasing a behavior; generalization means applying a learned response to similar stimuli; Pavlovian conditioning (classical conditioning) is about pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.