Deprivation, as an establishing operation, is typically related to substances that are biologically required by an organism, such as food, water, air, heat, and possibly sexual contact. We can be “deprived” of many other things without a resultant increase in the reinforcing effectiveness of a related stimulus change. If we have not had a pencil for a long period of time, for example, we do not say that we have become pencil-deprived and then ask for a pencil. Well, we might, but that’s sort of weird.
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