Discriminative inhibition is specific to the response-reinforcer association but not to the discriminative stimulus

In 4 experiments an instrumental contingency between a response and a reinforcer was introduced in the presence of a discriminative stimulus. Then a discriminative inhibitor (S delta) was established that signaled that the instrumental contingency would no longer operate in the presence of that discriminative stimulus, so that the S delta suppressed operant responding. The degree to which the S delta, s inhibitory properties transferred to different discriminative stimuli and different response-reinforcer associations was then explored. In Experiments 1 and 2 the S delta, s effects transferred perfectly to a 2nd discriminative stimulus, whereas the results of Experiments 3 and 4 were consistent with the hypothesis that the S delta, s inhibitory properties were specific to the original response-reinforcer association. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.