Introductory Concepts
Elementary Relationships
Extensions of Verbal Behavior
Multiple Controlling Relationships
Building on the Elementary Relationships
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18.6 Review of Establishing Operation

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The history of characteristic reinforcement does not account for the occurrence of a current response. What is needed is some environmental event that precedes the response and is responsible for increasing the probability of its occurrence. We need some event that is related to the reinforcement that typically follows the response. This type of event has already been discussed—it is the establishing operation presented in Lesson 6.

A diagram illustrating the process of defining a mandate for an operation.

Establishing Operation

An environmental change or event with the following features:

Precedes the response to which it is functionally related

Increases the effectiveness of a particular stimulus change as reinforcement

The type of environmental event

The cause of the environmental event

The type of stimulus that gains reinforcing effectiveness

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