review the primary posts of your classmates and respond specifically and substantially (no less than 100 words) to at least two other students.

Student one

What are Motivating Operations (MO) and why is this behavior concept so important for a Functional Behavioral Assessment? In your response please outline the specific definition of the concept and review two of the several types of MO’s. Be sure to include references to both conditioned and unconditioned MO’s in your primary post. Conclude your response with a real-life example to bolster your post.

There are two types of motivating operations(MO), value-altering effects and behavior-altering effects (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). The value-altering effects(VAE) will either increase or decrease the effectiveness of the reinforcement associated with a target behavior. When the VAE increases the value of a reinforcement this is an example of an establishing operation(EO), and when the effect decreases the value of the reinforcement this is an example of abolishing operation(AO) (Steege & Watson, 2009). Behavior-altering effects(BAE) will either increase or decrease the frequency of a behavior that has been previously reinforced. When the BAE increases the frequency of the behavior has been reinforced this is an example of the evocative effect, and when the frequency of the behavior decreases this is an example of the ablative effect. MO’s are both unlearned/unconditioned and learned/conditioned, MO’s can also affect a single behavior or multiple behaviors and it is important to understand MO’s when conducting a functional behavioral assessment(FBA). The objective of an effective FBA is to produce an effective intervention that replaces the maladaptive target behavior with a more adaptive terminal behavior (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). With this objective, it is important to look at all variables that impact the target behavior. For example, deprivation of food, water, or sleep increases the reinforcing value of food, water or sleep. These are unconditioned motivating operations(UMO’s). Unlimited access or abundance of a reinforcer creates a satiation response and decreases the value of the UMO. Conditioned motivating operations(CMO’S) like social attention, tokens, or money can have the same effects as UMO’s, too much creates satiation and too little creates deprivation.

An example of how MO’s can affect behavior would be in the case of a small child age 7, named Andy. Andy’s mother keeps sweets and candy all over the house and Andy has access to these tangibles whenever he wants. Andy is limited in the amount of TV and movies he can watch. While Andy’s parents are out for the night, the babysitter tries to put Andy to bed and Andy wants to stay up and watch another movie. The babysitter offers Andy a piece of chocolate and is surprised when he continues to have a tantrum. His motivation to go to bed or receive chocolate is low on the reinforcement.

References

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson Education.

Steege, M. W., & Watson, T. S. (2009). Conducting school-based functional behavioral assessments: A practitioner's guide (2 ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Publications Inc. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781606237267/cfi/6/4[;vnd.vst.idref=fm1]

Student two

What are Motivating Operations (MO) and why is this behavior concept so important for a Functional Behavioral Assessment? In your response please outline the specific definition of the concept and review two of the various types of MO’s. Be sure to include references to both conditioned and unconditioned MO’s in your primary post. Conclude your response with a real-life example to bolster your post.

Motivating Operations are the driving force behind a behavior. It is an antecedent variable that causes a behavioral change because it alters the effectiveness of reinforcing consequences. There are two different types of motivating operations. The first are unconditioned MOs, or motivating operations that have not been learned. These MOs are in place without having to be taught due to a physical need and will to survive. The second type of MOs are conditioned motivating operations. These MOs have been learned from previous experience. In each of these categories, there are reinforcer-enabling effects and reinforcer-abolishing effects. In functional behavior assessments, the goal is to determine the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences in order to alter a behavior or behaviors. Since motivating operations are antecedents of a behavior, understanding them will help us determine not only why a behavior is occurring but also how to go about correcting or preventing it in the future.

A real-life example of an unconditioned motivation occurred with my daughter last week. She is in elementary school and her behavior is monitored with a color system. Green for good behavior, yellow if they had to be warned, and red if the inappropriate behavior persisted. I had been giving her a small piece of candy after dinner on the days her chart was colored green. This has worked well all year until last week. I noticed she had not been upset when her reward was taken away on bad days. After some digging, it came to light that grandma had given her a pack of gum that I didn’t know about, so she was still having her gum reinforcement from another source even when she was misbehaving, so she no longer desired the motivation I had been providing. When her secret gum was taken away, the problem was corrected and her behavior returned to normal in order to earn her reinforcer.

Reference

Watson, T. S., & Steege, M. W. (2003). Conducting School-Based Functional Behavioral Assessments. The Guilford Practical Intervention in the School Series(2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/b…