Question

Compare and contrast the different types of conditioned motivating operations (CMO’s).

Answer 1

There are 3 types of CMOs:

1. Surrogate CMOs (CMO-S):

A stimulus that has acquired its effectiveness by accompanying some other MO and has come to have the same value-altering and behavior-altering effects as the MO that it has accompanied. A pairing process has to take place here with another MO.

Example: Mom usually puts baby to sleep. One day, dad tried to put the baby to sleep, but the baby doesn’t fall asleep. Mom usually wears a certain fuzzy house robe that the baby has paired with sleep. Dad wears mom’s house robe and the pairing of the robe with dad helps the baby fall asleep.

2. Reflexive CMOs (CMO-R):

A condition or object that acquires its effectiveness as a motivational operation by preceding a situation that either is worsening or improving. This signals to us that an aversive event may be occurring soon. It is exemplified by the warning stimulus in a typical escape-avoidance procedure, which establishes its own offset as reinforcement and evokes all behavior that has accomplished that offset.

Example: The punishing coworker. In the presence of this person you “can’t seem to do anything right” and are constantly punished. She is always finding fault with you. Because of this, you want to spend less time with this person and you avoid her. Soon the office associated with her takes on these aversive qualities and you avoid going anywhere near where this person might be. Even hearing their voice down the hallway may signal you to take an early lunch and avoid running into them (and therefore avoid possible punishment).

3. Transitive CMOs (CMO-T):

An environmental variable that establishes or abolishes the reinforcing effectiveness of another stimulus and thereby evokes or abates the behavior that has been reinforced by that other stimulus. We cannot have access to the stimulus we want until we solve the problem.

Example: Someone puts a lock on the fridge. This establishes the reinforcing value of a key (key becomes the CMO-T) when access to food is valuable as a source of reinforcement.