A behavioral analyst with whom my agency works has explained that we might want to consider motivating operations that contribute to the problem behavior produced by an individual that lives in the group home where I work. What does this mean?

A “motivating operation” accounts for a condition that either increases or decreases the effectiveness of a consequence in increasing or decreasing the probability that a behavior will occur. They influence whether a person wants or does not want an event at a given moment, which helps explain a person’s behavior at a given point in time. For example, loud noises occurring when at the mall may affect the learner’s desire to leave the mall. This, in turn, may increase the probability of problem behavior occurring at the mall when it is noisy.