Establishing terms: A commentary on Edwards, Lotfizadeh & Poling's “Motivating operations and stimulus control”

Abstract

This commentary supports the arguments advanced in Edwards, Lotfizadeh and Poling's "Motivating Operations and Stimulus Control" by considering the issues raised by terminologies that apply the same terms to both operations and their outcomes (e.g., reinforcement as a name for a procedure and as a name for the change in behavior it produces) and those raised by polar terminologies that apply asymmetrical terms to the introduction of procedures and to their removal (e.g., establishing for initiating motivational operations and abolishing rather than disestablishing for terminating them, and evocative versus abative for the respective effects of these operations). The terminology of reinforcement versus extinction provides precedent for such asymmetries, but the proliferation of variations on names for behavior that either increases or decreases creates pedagogical problems. Edwards et al. have proposed simplifications that may ameliorate these complications.