Withholding or being without access to a reinforcer, thus increasing the value of accessing the reinforcer is called what?

• A. Deprivation
• B. Satiation
• C. Extinction
• D. Extinction Burst

Answer: (A)

Deprivation is a motivating operation where not having access to a reinforcer makes that reinforcer more valuable. When you’ve been without the reinforcer for a time, its ability to reinforce a behavior increases, so you’re more likely to work to obtain it. This contrasts with satiation, which lowers the reinforcer’s value after you’ve had plenty of it. Extinction involves withholding reinforcement for a behavior, which gradually reduces that behavior, and an extinction burst is a temporary spike in responding when extinction is first implemented. So the scenario described—being without access and the reinforcer becoming more valuable—fits deprivation.