Motivating Operations Research Articles

Motivational state-dependent renewal and reinstatement of operant responding under food and water deprivation states

Most studies of operant relapse phenomena have studied the role of exteroceptive discriminative features of context in the recovery of behavior after extinction. Interoceptive stimuli (i.e., stimuli arising from the bodies of organisms) may also serve as a part of learning contexts and contribute to relapse. Recent studies have demonstrated that events that function as motivating operations (MOs) may contribute to relapse both by a) eliciting interoceptive conditions that serve as a discriminative context for relapse (i.e., discriminative function) and b) altering the amount of operant responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli associated with reinforcers (i.e., motivational function). The current study examined interactions between these functions of food and water deprivation MOs in the relapse of operant behavior. During acquisition of an operant response, one group of mice was food-deprived and another was water-deprived. The groups then received extinction sessions under the opposite condition. Renewal and reinstatement tests were conducted under both conditions, and more renewal and reinstatement were observed in the motivational states in which acquisition occurred for each. These results are discussed in the context of state-dependent learning.

Motivating operations as contexts for operant discrimination training and testing

Two groups of mice were exposed to stimulus discrimination training and testing under different motivational conditions to study interactions between motivating operations (MOs) during initial discrimination training and MOs when performance is tested following training. One group received all discrimination training sessions under 24-h food deprivation while the other received all sessions under 0-h food deprivation. The number of responses allowed during discrimination training sessions was limited such that the two groups experienced the same number of response-outcome contingencies. The groups then received two post-discrimination training tests: one conducted under 24-h food deprivation and the other conducted under 0-h food deprivation. Results indicated no difference between groups in terms of discrimination ratio. However, subjects trained under 24-h deprivation made more responses in the 24-h test, while subjects trained under 0-h deprivation made more responses in the 0-h test. These results are discussed in terms of motivational state-dependent learning.

Motivational state-dependent renewal and reinstatement: Discriminative and motivational functions of food deprivation and satiation states

Interoceptive stimuli (e.g., those associated with drugs and other motivational/emotional states) can acquire discriminative control over behavior when they are reliably correlated with particular Pavlovian or operant contingencies. This has been called state-dependent learning. Recent studies have shown that extinction learning can be specific to the interoceptive context in which it occurs, and interoceptive conditions can also contribute to the state-dependent renewal of operant behavior following extinction. Many of the events that induce interoceptive conditions that may contribute to renewal following extinction in this way concurrently function as motivating operations (MOs) that alter the value of reinforcers for operant behavior, and these functions may also contribute to the recovery of extinguished behavior. Three experiments were conducted to study interactions between the discriminative functions of interoceptive contexts associated with food deprivation and satiation MOs and their motivational functions in the renewal and reinstatement of extinguished operant behavior. We found evidence of the motivational state-dependent effects of extinction, as well as state-dependent renewal and reinstatement of operant behavior under food deprivation conditions. However, state-dependent renewal and reinstatement were not observed under food satiation conditions, even when these served as acquisition or non-extinction contexts. The results suggest that interoceptive states associated with food deprivation/satiation MOs can serve as discriminative parts of context that contribute to the recovery of extinguished operant behavior, but that relatively little renewal/reinstatement may be expected in the absence of the relevant motivational conditions.

Understanding Motivating Operations and the Impact on the Function of Behavior

Special educators are often considered the experts in their school when it comes to developing functional behavior assessments (FBA) and behavior intervention plans (BIP), yet rarely are they trained much beyond basic antecedents, behaviors, and consequences (ABC). This column discusses concepts that will expand special education professionals’ knowledge to make better decisions regarding interventions for the students they serve. Specifically, the focus is on motivating operations (MO) and function-based interventions and the implications of these on behavior. Knowledge of the concept of MOs can enhance a teacher’s ability to provide evidence-based interventions and more fully developed behavioral interventions for students in their purview.

Interactions between Motivational and Discriminative Functions of Motivating Operations in the Renewal of Operant Responding in Mice

Renewal is a phenomenon in which a response that has been extinguished recovers when an organism is removed from the setting in which extinction occurred. In most renewal studies, context consists of exteroceptive stimuli (e.g., distinct visual, auditory, tactile, and/or olfactory stimuli). Nevertheless, a number of studies have shown that interoceptive stimuli such as those induced by drugs or food deprivation may come to exert discriminative control over behavior under the relevant contingencies. We investigated how interoceptive organismic conditions brought about through food deprivation and satiation motivating operations (MOs) can serve as contextual cues for the renewal of extinguished operant responding in mice. Three groups of mice received acquisition and extinction sessions under three different combinations of food deprivation and satiation. One group received acquisition sessions while deprived and extinction sessions while satiated. A second group received both acquisition and extinction sessions while satiated. A third group received both acquisition and extinction sessions while deprived. All groups were then tested for renewal under both deprivation and satiation conditions. ABA and AAB renewal were observed for the first two groups under deprivation conditions, but AAB renewal was not observed for the third group under satiation conditions. The results suggest that interoceptive stimuli elicited by MOs may serve as contextual stimuli that occasion the recovery of responding following extinction, but unlike exteroceptive contextual cues, the discriminative functions of these stimuli are accompanied by motivational functions that may affect the extent to which renewal is observed.

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to ask "where" questions using a speech-generating device.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have limited speech are often taught to communicate using a speech-generating device (SGD). We evaluated procedures for teaching a mand for information (i.e., Where is [item]?) using an interrupted behavior chain procedure. In Experiment 1, all participants (3 children with ASD who communicated using an SGD) acquired the target mand but transfer to a novel stimulus did not occur. In the second experiment, 2 participants were taught to approach alternative communication partners when the first partner did not provide the information. The second experiment also included procedures to test whether the responses were under the control of appropriate motivating operations (MOs). Generalization across communication partners occurred with both participants, but transfer across behavior chains with only 1 participant. The results of both experiments suggest that teaching multiple behavior chains and evaluating MO control may be necessary to establish generalized manding for information.

The Will to Fight: Aversion-Induced Aggression and the Role of Motivation in Intergroup Conflicts.

Aggressive behavior is a source of many significant human problems, most notably the catastrophic loss of life and resources that can result from violent conflicts between groups. Aggressive behavior is particularly likely to arise from aversive conditions that function as motivating operations (MOs) that establish the stimulation produced by aggressive acts as reinforcing. We describe the behavior that arises from these circumstances as aversion-induced aggression (AIA) and argue that the MOs associated with AIA are important factors in initiating and sustaining violent conflicts between groups. In support of this, we survey the basic nonhuman research that has demonstrated the aggression-motivating functions of aversive stimuli. We extend our analysis of AIA to humans and describe how the special properties of verbal stimuli serve as the basis for notable differences between AIA in humans and nonhumans. We describe how aversive conditions may be exploited by leaders to establish support for aggression against another group in the pursuit of their objectives. We suggest that conflicts between groups cannot be resolved in the long term unless the motivational conditions from which conflicts arise are alleviated. Aggression is rarely effective in this regard because it exacerbates these conditions. For this reason, we advocate against the use of aggression as a tool for resolving conflicts between groups and consider how behavior science may contribute to the development and evaluation of alternative nonviolent practices.

Interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations on food- and water-reinforced responding in mice.

Two experiments examined interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations (MOs) on the food- and water-reinforced operant behavior of mice. In Experiment 1, mice responded for sucrose pellets and then water reinforcement under four different MOs: food deprivation, water deprivation, concurrent food and water deprivation, and no deprivation. The most responding for pellets occurred under food deprivation and the most responding for water occurred under water deprivation. Concurrent food and water deprivation decreased responding for both reinforcers. Nevertheless, water deprivation alone increased pellet-reinforced responding and food deprivation alone likewise increased water-reinforced responding relative to no deprivation. Experiment 2 demonstrated that presession food during concurrent food and water deprivation increased in-session responding for water relative to sessions where no presession food was provided. Conversely, presession water during concurrent food and water deprivation did not increase in-session responding for pellets. These results suggest that a) the reinforcing value of a single stimulus can be affected by multiple MOs, b) a single MO can affect the reinforcing value of multiple stimuli, and c) reinforcing events can also function as MOs. We consider implications for theory and practice and suggest strategies for further basic research on MOs.

The Generalization of Mands.

The mand is a type of verbal operant whose response form is under control of a motivating operation (MO). It is the first verbal operant to be acquired, directly benefits the speaker, leads to the development of other behaviors, and may serve to replace problem behavior. Even though the topography of the mand is under the functional control of an MO, its occurrence is influenced by a multitude of variables functioning as discriminative stimuli (SDs). Thus, the generalization of mands can occur across both MOs and SDs. Additionally, the same MO may evoke new mand topographies-a form of response generalization. The purpose of this article is to distinguish and describe these types of mand generalization in order to encourage future research and influence practice.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS THROUGH ANTECEDENT INTERVENTION

Behavior‐analytic academic intervention research has gained popularity among school psychologists because it offers a unique combination of robust principles of behavior and a degree of clarity and precision about functional relationships that is unparalleled in other learning paradigms. This article reviews the literature for a type of antecedent manipulation that is well established in the field of applied behavior analysis, but which has been sorely neglected in the area of academic interventions: motivating operations (MOs). The existing literature suggests two strategies in particular that can be easily combined with existing interventions—choice and indiscriminable contingencies. These strategies can increase the relative strength of reinforcing consequences for correct responses to academic tasks. This article reviews the empirical support for the variety of ways in which each strategy can be implemented and ties their effects to the functional properties of MOs. To date, attempts to bring together in a single publication the most effective strategies falling under the conceptual umbrella of MOs and articulate their implications for academic interventions are lacking. The current article explains the potential role of MOs (and the associated intervention strategies) in academic interventions and provides guidance for their use as components that can be added to academic interventions. The application of MO manipulations is illustrated in a comparison of the effects of indiscriminable contingencies with high‐preference consequences on the rate of math computation fluency for two elementary school children.

The effect of the magnitude of the food deprivation motivating operation on free operant preference in mice

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that organisms prefer stimuli correlated with food under high deprivation conditions over stimuli correlated with food under low deprivation conditions. The purpose of the present study was to extend the literature on this phenomenon by testing for preference under extinction conditions, testing for preference at baseline, employing a free operant preference test, and using mice as subjects. Our results appear to support the existing literature in that most subjects preferred a stimulus correlated with food under high deprivation conditions in the post-training preference test. We provide an analysis of this phenomenon based on the concept of the motivating operation (MO) and discuss how this analysis suggests a number of avenues for further research on this topic.

Toward an Analysis of Emotions as Products of Motivating Operations

The study of motivation within behavior analysis has historically pertained to the investigation of organism-environment interactions that alter the efficacy of events as reinforcers or aversive stimuli. A number of authors have noted similarities between the motivational properties of events that are classified as motivating operations (MOs) and the sorts of events typically held to occasion emotions. We will propose that emotions may be most usefully conceptualized within the framework of the MO concept, and that conceptualizing emotions in this way may serve to stimulate research in this important area. In so doing, we will provide a history of the behavior analytic treatment of emotions and offer an account of emotions as products of MOs using several examples from the literature. We will conclude by suggesting several areas in which the present account may generate research.

Were Increased Closed Seclusions the Result of a Reinforcer-Abolishing Effect?

In recent years, the motivating operation (MO) concept and the terms associated with it, including "reinforcer-abolishing effect" (Laraway, Snycerski, Michael, & Poling, 2003), have been widely used in the behavior-analytic literature (Laraway, Snycerski, Olson, Becker, & Poling, in press) and elsewhere (Lotfizadeh, Edwards, & Poling, 2013). MOs are changes in the environment that alter the reinforcing effectiveness of designated classes of stimuli, such as food or water.

Jack Michael’s Motivation

Among many of Jack Michael's contributions to the field of behavior analysis is his behavioral account of motivation. This paper focuses on the concept of motivating operation (MO) by outlining its development from Skinner's (1938) notion of drive. Conceptually, Michael's term helped us change our focus on how to study motivation by shifting its origins from the organism to the environment. Michael's account also served to stimulate applied research and to better understand behavioral function in clinical practice.

Increasing the Mand Repertoire of Children With Autism Through the Use of an Interrupted Chain Procedure

Mand training is an essential component of verbal behavior training for any individual who lacks this skill. The current study replicates and extends, with some procedural differences, the work of Hall and Sundberg (1987) by using an interrupted chain procedure to teach mands for missing items to children with autism. The participants were 3 children with autism, ranging between 5 and 8 years of age, who would regularly mand for a wide variety of reinforcers when they were present but would rarely mand for items that were not in sight (i.e., missing items). Participants were first taught to complete 3 behavior chains. Subsequently, the chains were interrupted by removing 1 item needed to complete each chain to contrive motivating operations (MOs) as a means of teaching mands for missing items. Following mand training incorporating vocal prompt and prompt fading procedures, all participants emitted unprompted mands for the missing items within the context of the trained chains and within the context of novel, untrained chains. After teaching mands for missing items, probes were conducted to test for untrained tact acquisition. All participants also demonstrated tact responses relative to the missing items as a result of the mand training.

A COMPARISON OF BRIEF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES WITH AND WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES

Variations to traditional functional analysis methodology, such as brief functional analyses (BFAs), are prevalent in the literature. In the current evaluation, two types of BFAs were each conducted with five participants. In one, potential motivating operations (MOs) were presented, and problem behavior resulted in delivery of an associated consequence. In the other, the same MOs were presented, but no consequences were delivered. Results of the two BFAs were compared with respect to the conditions in which problem behavior occurred and the degree of differentiation between test and control conditions. Results across the BFA methodologies generally matched across all five participants. However, greater differentiation was observed in the BFA that did not include consequences. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Types of Motivating Operations in Interventions With Problem Behavior

A motivating operation (MO) alters both the effectiveness of a stimulus as a reinforcer and the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced by that particular stimulus. This article reviews studies that have manipulated a MO during interventions with school-age participants with intellectual disabilities and problem behavior. A systematic review was conducted using the following major electronic databases: PsychInfo, Education Resources Information Center, Science Direct, Blackwell, SAGE, and Medline. A total of 31 published articles representing 55 participants was examined. Findings from this study suggest that the modification of a MO usually has an effect on the problem behavior by either establishing or abolishing its motivation. Furthermore, a relationship was found between the type of MO and the behavioral function identified. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings, limitations of this study and potential issues for future research are discussed.

The Use of Reinforcer Assessments in Evaluating Psychotropic Medication Effects

Psychotropic medications are increasingly being prescribed for the treatment of problem behavior, particularly in combination with behavioral interventions. Previous research has demonstrated the motivating operation (MO) effects of psychotropic medications, which may lead to changes in stimulus preference or changes in the magnitude of reinforcers maintaining the problem behavior under treatment. Although preference and reinforcer assessments have been conducted to examine changes in item preference and reinforcer effectiveness, there is limited research regarding how medications impact outcomes on these assessments. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need for research on the effects psychotropic medications have on preference and reinforcer assessment outcomes. The implications of these findings are also discussed.

Manipulating Motivating Operations to Facilitate the Emergence of Mands for a Child With Autism

Research on the functional independence of verbal operants (Skinner, 1957) has demonstrated inconsistent findings. One explanation may be that these studies have not manipulated the motivating operation (MO) to facilitate the emergence of mands (Hall & Sundberg, 1987; Lamarre & Holland, 1985). In the current study, 1 participant, diagnosed with autism, was taught to tact high-preference and low-preference leisure items, and emergence of mands was tested under varying MO conditions. Results showed the emergence of mands following periods of arranged deprivation, and greater maintenance for a highly preferred relative to a less preferred stimulus. However, mands only emerged when presession tact trials were conducted. These results suggest that in a state of deprivation, transfer of stimulus control from discriminative to motivational conditions may occur without direct training.

EFFECTS OF PREFERENCE ON VERIFICATION OF DISCRIMINATED MANDS

Previous research suggests that motivating operation (MO) manipulations may assist in assessing discriminated manding (Gutierrez et al., 2007). The current study partially replicated and extended previous research by varying access to concurrently available reinforcers with different preference values (i.e., MO manipulations). Manding did not occur (a) for reinforcers that were freely available and (b) for lower preference items when relatively higher preference reinforcers were freely available. Results further demonstrated the utility of manipulating MOs to verify discriminated mands but suggest that relative preference of alternative reinforcers should be controlled during these assessments.