Question: This type of CMO is described as blocking access to an unconditioned or conditioned reinforcer and needing problem-solving behaviors to gain access.
Answer: The transitive MO, also known as CMO-T.
CMO-T is an environmental variable that establishes something else as a reinforcer or punisher. The CMO-T evokes the necessary behaviors needed to obtain the actually needed item because something is blocking access to the item actually needed, and that problem-solving behavior is needed. For example, if you need a charger for your phone, what you actually need is your phone. But the battery’s dead, so you need the charger in order to actually use the phone. So, that CMO-T is the deprivation of the charger, even though it’s just a cord. What you actually really need is your phone to work so that you can post something on Instagram.
Another example: You need to use the bathroom, and you’re at Starbucks. In order to use the bathroom at Starbucks, you need a secret pin or a code for the door. That code access is the problem that you need to solve to get what you actually want, which is getting into the bathroom. The missing code is the CMO-T. You’re going to see the use of this a lot in manding programs, like when you put toys out of reach or contrive conditions in which the client needs to request your help, or to ask for a straw, or a spoon, or anything in which they need something in order to do what they actually want.