6.9 Establishing Operation vs. Discriminative Stimulus Part 1
The concept of an establishing operation for reinforcement is relatively new and can be difficult to understand. It is helpful to contrast an establishing operation with a discriminative stimulus. For a discriminative stimulus to be effective, the reinforcement must currently be effective. Imagine a water vending machine that costs nothing to use, but only works when the “water” sign is lit up.
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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