[From Bill Powers (950328.1730 MST)]
Rick Marken (950328.1130)--
Gilda : "What's all this I hear lately about the discriminative
stimulus being an irrelvant side effect.. blah blah, rant rant".
Host: "That was 'stimulus control'; not 'discrimintive stimulus'.
Gilda : (baffled pause) "Never mind"
Glad you brought it up.
Gilda (recovering from pause): But look, if I vary the discriminative
stimulus I can control the behavior. See? SD one way, behavior goes one
way. SD goes the other way, behavior goes the other way. Complete
control of behavior.
Host: Huh? What? Hey, you're right. Damn.
Gilda: On the other hand, that organism doesn't seem to be controlling
its own behavior. It seems to be controlling a consequence by varying
the behavior. Maybe the organism doesn't care if its behavior is being
controlled, as long as it gets what it wants. Wanna try controlling my
behavior, big boy?
Host (looking disgusted): Thanks, maybe later.
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Best,
Bill P.