Features that are irrelevant to classifying an environmental event as an establishing operation include the type of environmental event, the cause of the environmental event, and the type of stimulus that gains reinforcing effectiveness.
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