Motivating Operations and Discriminative Stimuli: Distinguishable but Interactive Variables

Abstract

The motivating operations concept has been of considerable interest and practical value to behavior analysts, including practitioners. Nonetheless, the concept has generated substantial controversy and has significant limitations. To address some of these limitations, we suggest that it would be wise to redefine motivating operations, to deemphasize the importance that has historically been placed on subtypes of conditioned motivating operations, to emphasize how motivating operations and discriminative stimuli interact, and to further examine the kinds of environmental changes that alter the reinforcing value of particular kinds of stimuli. These suggestions are detailed elsewhere and summarized in this article.