NEW!! Motivating Operations: Practical Lessons from the Applied Research – 9/25/18

The concept of “motivating operations” (MO) has had an immense impact on theory, research,
and practice in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I will provide an overview of MOs, as well as
definitions of the key concepts related to MOs, including establishing operations, abolishing
operations, unconditioned MOs, and conditioned MOs. I will describe a series of practical
lessons from the applied research on MOs using concepts, procedures, and diagrams. The
practical lessons span four areas of practice and types of analyses in ABA: (1) mand training, (2)
preference assessment, (3) functional analysis of problem behavior, and (4) treatment of problem
behavior. I will close the presentation with a summary of recommendations for practice and
recommendations for future research.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define “motivating operations” and the sub-types (e.g., establishing operations,
abolishing operations, conditioned motivating operations).
2. Describe major research findings in terms of how MOs helped analyze ABA assessments
and interventions in areas such as mand training, functional analysis of problem behavior,
and treatment of problem behavior.
3. Describe practical considerations for using and analyzing MOs when conducting
assessments and treatments in the areas of mand training, functional analysis of problem
behavior, and treatment of problem behavior.

Judah B. Axe, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LABA, is an Associate Professor of Education and Behavior Analysis at Simmons College and the Director of the Special Education Program at Simmons. Dr. Axe received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Special Education and Applied Behavior Analysis from The Ohio State University. He conducts research with children with autism and related disabilities in the areas of verbal, social, and challenging behavior. Three current research topics are the effects of problem solving on recalling past events, the effects of echoic responding on multiply controlled intraverbals, and the effects of presession pairing on compliance and problem behavior. Dr. Axe serves on the editorial boards of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Behavioral Interventions. He has served as Chair of the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), Co-Coordinator of the Verbal Behavior Area for the ABAI Conference, Chair of the Student Relations Committee of the Berkshire Association for Behavior Analysis and Therapy, and Trustee and the Continuing Education Coordinator of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.