Refining the Motivating Operation Construct: Eliminating the Value-Altering Function and Specifying the Behavior-Altering Functions

Motivating operations (MOs) are held to 1) alter the value/efficacy of consequential stimuli (value-altering function) and 2) alter behavior relevant to these stimuli (behavior-altering function). These two functions are considered critically against empirical evidence to evaluate the extent to which each corresponds to actual observations of behavior-environment relations. On this basis, the following refinements are suggested. First, positing a value-altering function of MOs is unnecessary because observations that have been taken as evidence for this function are adequately and parsimoniously described in terms of MOs’ behavior-altering functions, particularly their effects on the evocative efficacy of discriminative stimuli that have been associated with certain consequential events. Second, the precision of descriptions of the behavior-altering functions of MOs may be increased by explicitly acknowledging that MOs serve multiple functions. In addition to their motivational functions, MOs affect behavior by serving eliciting, discriminative, and reinforcing or punishing functions. Interactions between the effects of different MOs and biologically-based individual differences in susceptibilities to certain MOs also play a role determining their behavior-altering functions. In surveying the existing empirical literature relevant to these issues, areas in which further investigation is needed are highlighted.

Behavioral Analysis of Law: An Operant Interpretation of Legal Systems

Law is interpreted as a functionally specialized social system, selected by its consequences, whose main function is to control politically defined socially undesirable behavior. Such control derives from legal norms, which are interlocked behavioral patterns, controlled by changes in the probability of application of sanctions, that establish social contingencies of reinforcement to the behavior of group members. These behavioral patterns form a legal behavioral network, in each node of which one response emitted by one person produces discriminative stimuli to the response of a second person, which, in turn, reinforces the occurrence of the first response and generates discriminative stimuli for the behavior of other individuals that take part in subsequent nodes. A great part of behavioral patterns that form legal norms consist of rule uttering responses, occurring in problem-solving contexts, which are verbal responses reinforced by changes in the repertoire of other individuals related to the probability of application of sanctions. Legal rules are composed of three elements: relevant factual assumptions, social goal and legal contingency. This behavior-analytic interpretation of legal systems, which proposes a novel naturalistic legal theory, encourages new areas of empirical research and applications.

Extinguishing cocaine-associated discriminative stimuli attenuates cocaine vs food choice in male rhesus monkeys

ABSTRACTBackgroundIn drug addiction, relapse can be triggered by cues that function as discriminative stimuli to signal contingencies of drug availability and promote drug-taking behavior. Extinction procedures can weaken the association between drug-associated cues and drug use and may reduce the probability of relapse. This study evaluated effects of a regimen of extinction training on cocaine self-administration maintained in rhesus monkeys under a cocaine-vs.-food choice procedure that has been used previously to evaluate effectiveness of other candidate treatments for cocaine abuse.MethodsBehavior was initially maintained under a concurrent schedule of food delivery (1-g food pellets; fixed-ratio 100 schedule) and cocaine injections (0-0.1 mg/kg/injection; fixed-ratio 10 schedule) during daily 2-h choice sessions in male rhesus monkeys (n=4). Subsequently, choice sessions were supplemented by daily 20-h extinction sessions for 14 consecutive days. During extinction sessions, cocaine-associated discriminative stimuli were presented, but responding did not produce cocaine injections. Cocaine continued to be available during choice sessions.ResultsPrior to extinction, cocaine maintained a dose-dependent increase in cocaine vs. food choice. Responding during extinction sessions declined to low levels by the fifth day. Exposure to extinction sessions produced a more gradual but significant decline in cocaine choice and a complementary increase in food choice during choice sessions.ConclusionsThese preclinical results support the effectiveness of extinguishing cocaine-associated discriminative stimuli as a non-pharmacological treatment strategy for reducing cocaine choice. Moreover, these results also support the construct validity of preclinical drug vs. food choice procedures as a tool for candidate treatment evaluation for cocaine addiction.