Introductory Concepts
Elementary Relationships
Extensions of Verbal Behavior
Multiple Controlling Relationships
Building on the Elementary Relationships
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6.3 Establishing Operation Example #1

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Perhaps the most common types of establishing operations, those mentioned by Skinner in Verbal Behavior, are deprivation and aversive stimulation. The stimulus change that results from a situation in which you have no water to one in which you now have water available often acts as reinforcement for the verbal response, “water, please.” However, this is likely to be reinforcement only if you are currently water deprived.

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

A man is laying on the ground next to a cup of water.
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