Where my CMO's at??

After a week to focus on creating my own behavior plan (I will be posting that soon) I am back to talk about the newest item on the BACB task list: Conditioned Motivating Operations (CMOs).

Now lets break it down!

Conditioned vs Unconditioned Motivating Operations

Motivating Operation:an environmental variable that alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing/punishing effectiveness of some stimulus/event AND alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced/punished by that stimulus/event. (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007)

Most Common Examples of MOs

• Money
• Alcohol/Drugs
• Vacation 
• Spending time with friends 
• Television/ Computer/ Phone 

Conditioned: a previous learning history (several pairings with an unconditioned reinforcer until the neutral stimulus is reinforcing)

Unconditioned: no learning history (as a living organism you are programmed to seek out these reinforcers).

Types of UMO's

• Sex
• Temperature regulation
• Food
• Water
• Sleep
• Pain 
• Being active
• Oxygen

All of these are unconditioned because there was no learning necessary for an individual to know they are reinforcing. No one taught you that you needed to eat, as a baby a human is programmed to seek food. 

Types of CMO's

• Surrogate (CMO-S): it accomplishes the same as the MO
• Reflexive (CMO-R): alters the relation the MO is under (makes the removal of itself reinforcing).
• Transitive (CMO-T): makes something else an effective reinforcer

Examples of CMO's

• CMO-S: you eat a snack when watching Netflix for a week. Now every time you go to watch Netflix you are conditioned to eat at the same time.
• CMO-R: when a friend asks you to help them move out of their apartment- the worsening stimuli (you agree to help). The friend then reinforces your behavior by thanking you. 
• CMO-T: you are leaving for work and the forecast says its going to snowing and below freezing (welcome to New England) now your winter coat is reinforcing. Its not because you love your winter coat it is because it is cold out and you need to leave the house. 

My list of CMO's 

What are some of your CMO's? How do you think they became conditioned? 

I hope you partake in some this coming long weekend!