Resurgence and alternative-reinforcer magnitude

Punishment-induced resurgence

The phenomenon of extinction-induced resurgence is well established, but there is comparatively little experimental evidence for punishment-induced resurgence. Punishment-induced resurgence can by tested by contingent shocks following the alternative response. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether low-intensity shocks, that do not decrease rate of reinforcement, result in resurgence. Four rats served as subjects. Rats were exposed to three sequential conditions: (a) variable-interval (VI) 30-s food delivery for a lever press (target response); (b) VI 30-s food delivery for a nose poke (alternative response) and extinction of the lever press; (c) VI 30-s reinforcement for a nose poke with superimposed VI 60-s shock delivery. In the final condition, shocks increased gradually from 0.1 to 0.5 mA. Experiment 2 evaluated whether an abrupt introduction of a high-intensity shock would result in resurgence. Three rats served as subjects and were exposed to three sequential conditions: (a) VI 30-s food delivery for a lever press; (b) VI 30-s food delivery for a nose poke and extinction of the lever press; (c) continued VI 30-s reinforcement for a nose poke with superimposed VI 60-s 0.6 mA shock delivery. Resurgence was observed in all subjects, including in situations in which rate of responding, but not rate of reinforcement, decreased. The present study provides additional evidence for punishment-induced resurgence, but future studies are warranted to determine the extent to which punishment can produce resurgence with or without decreases in rates of reinforcement.

Resurgence of ethanol seeking following voluntary abstinence produced by nondrug differential reinforcement of other behavior

Resurgence refers to the relapse of a target behavior following the worsening of a source of alternative reinforcement that was made available during response elimination. Most laboratory analyses of resurgence have used a combination of extinction and alternative reinforcement to reduce target behavior. In contingency-management treatments for alcohol use disorder, however, alcohol use is not placed on extinction. Instead, participants voluntarily abstain from alcohol use to access nondrug alternative reinforcers. Inasmuch, additional laboratory research on resurgence following voluntary abstinence is warranted. The present experiment evaluated resurgence of rats' ethanol seeking following voluntary abstinence produced by differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO). Lever pressing produced ethanol reinforcers during baseline phases. During DRO phases, lever pressing continued to produce ethanol and food reinforcers were delivered according to resetting DRO schedules. Ethanol and food reinforcers were suspended during resurgence test phases to evaluate resurgence following voluntary abstinence. Lever pressing was elevated during baseline phases and occurred at near-zero rates during DRO phases. During the resurgence test phases, lever pressing increased, despite that it no longer produced ethanol. The procedure introduced here may help researchers better understand the variables that affect voluntary abstinence from ethanol seeking and resurgence following voluntary abstinence.

Resurgence Following Higher or Lower Quality Alternative Reinforcement

Resurgence is a temporary increase in a previously suppressed target behavior following a worsening in reinforcement conditions. Previous studies have examined how higher rates or magnitudes of alternative reinforcement affect suppression of the target behavior and subsequent resurgence. However, there has been no investigation of the effects of higher versus lower qualities of alternative reinforcement on resurgence. Using a three-phase resurgence preparation with rats, the present experiments examined the effects of an alternative reinforcer that was of higher (Experiment 1) or lower (Experiment 2) quality than the reinforcer that had previously maintained the target behavior. The results of both experiments showed greater reductions in target behavior with a higher quality alternative reinforcer and larger increases in target responding when a higher quality alternative reinforcer was removed. Along with prior findings with higher rates and magnitudes of alternative reinforcement, these findings suggest that variations in reinforcer dimensions that increase the efficacy of alternative reinforcement also tend to increase resurgence when alternative reinforcement is removed. The results are discussed in terms of the resurgence as choice in context model and in terms of potential clinical implications.

Examining resurgence in rats following expanded-operant treatments

Resurgence of previously reinforced behavior represents a challenge to otherwise successful interventions based on differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA). Expanded-operant treatments seek to increase the number of functional alternative behaviors through DRA, thereby potentially mitigating resurgence. However, the few studies that have directly examined these methods as a tool for resurgence mitigation have provided limited and unclear results. Thus, the present experiments were designed to investigate the effect of expanded-operant DRA methods on resurgence of previously reinforced behavior using rat subjects. In two experiments, following a baseline phase in which a target response was trained, groups of rats experienced concurrent (i.e., five simultaneous alternative responses), serial (i.e., five sequentially available alternative responses), or single DRA interventions arranging similar rates of alternative reinforcement in order to examine potential differences in resurgence. Both experiments showed that neither serial nor concurrent DRA expanded-operant treatments reduced resurgence compared with single DRA regardless of whether stimuli associated with previously reinforced alternative responses were removed (Experiment 1) or remained present (Experiment 2) for the serial-DRA group. Further, a primacy effect in resurgence was obtained for the serial-DRA group in both experiments. Overall, these results suggest that expanded-operant treatments may not help to reduce resurgence.

Application of the evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics to severe challenging behavior

The evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics (ETBD) is a genetic algorithm that applies the Darwinian principles of evolutionary biology to model how behavior changes dynamically via selection by contingencies of reinforcement. The ETBD is a complexity theory where low-level rules of selection, reproduction, and mutation operate iteratively to animate "artificial organisms" that generate emergent outcomes. Numerous studies have demonstrated the ETBD can accurately model behavior of live animals in the laboratory, and it has been applied recently to model automatically maintained self-injury. The purpose of the current series of studies was to further extend the application of the ETBD to model additional functional classes of challenging behavior and clinical procedures. Outcomes obtained with artificial organisms generally corresponded well with outcomes observed with clinical cases sourced from consecutive controlled case series studies. Conceptual and methodological considerations on the application of the ETBD to model challenging behavior are discussed.

Modeling Behavioral Persistence with Resurgence as Choice in Context (RaC2): A Tutorial

Resurgence as Choice in Context (RaC2) is a quantitative model for evaluating the reemergence of a previously extinguished response when alternative reinforcement is worsened. Rooted in the matching law, RaC2 proposes that allocation between target and alternative responding is based on changes in the relative value of each response option over time, accounting for periods with and without alternative reinforcement. Given that practitioners and applied researchers may have limited experience with constructing quantitative models, we provide a step-by-step task analysis for building RaC2 using Microsoft Excel 2013. We also provide a few basic learning activities to help readers better understand RaC2 itself, the variables that affect the model's predictions, and the clinical implications of those predictions.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00796-y.

Modeling and quantifying resurgence in the Evolutionary Theory of Behavior Dynamics

McDowell's Evolutionary Theory of Behavior Dynamics (ETBD) has been shown to model a wide range of live organism behavior with excellent descriptive accuracy. Recently, artificial organisms (AOs) animated by the ETBD were shown to replicate the resurgence of a target response following downshifts in the density of reinforcement for an alternative response and across repeated iterations of the traditional three-phase resurgence paradigm in a manner commensurate with nonhuman subjects. In the current investigation, we successfully replicated an additional study that used this traditional three-phase resurgence paradigm with human participants. We fitted two models based on the Resurgence as Choice (RaC) theory to the data generated by the AOs. Because the models had varying numbers of free parameters, we used an information-theoretic approach to compare the models against one another. We found that a version of the Resurgence as Choice in Context model that incorporates aspects of Davison and colleague's Contingency Discriminability Model provided the best description of the resurgence data emitted by the AOs when accounting for the models' complexity. Last, we discuss considerations when developing and testing new quantitative models of resurgence that account for the ever-growing literature of resurgence.

A quantitative analysis of resurgence following downshifts in alternative-reinforcer magnitude

Resurgence is the increase in a previously reinforced and then extinguished target response due to changes in reinforcement conditions for an alternative response, including reductions in the rate or magnitude of reinforcement for the alternative response. Research with nonhumans suggests that reductions in both alternative-reinforcer rate and magnitude produce resurgence, but the present study was the first to examine effects of downshifts in alternative-reinforcer magnitude on humans' resurgence. Moreover, it was the first to evaluate whether the quantitative framework, resurgence as choice in context (RaC² ), could account for those effects. Consistent with predictions of RaC² , resurgence of a target button press occurred with reductions in point gain for an alternative response, with greater reductions producing higher levels of resurgence. However, the model consistently underpredicted and then overpredicted resurgence during tests with low-magnitude reinforcement and extinction. Systematic deviations in model predictions of alternative responding were also evident and consistent with previous fits of RaC² to nonhuman data. Overall, our findings suggest that RaC² could be a useful quantitative theoretical framework for understanding processes contributing to resurgence in humans, but further theoretical development is needed to account for the apparent divergent effects of extinction versus downshifts in reinforcer magnitude.

A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Procedures and Analyses Used in Basic and Preclinical Studies of Resurgence, 1970-2020

Resurgence is the return of a previously reinforced response as conditions worsen for an alternative response, such as the introduction of extinction, reductions in reinforcement, or punishment. As a procedure, resurgence has been used to model behavioral treatments and understand behavioral processes contributing both to relapse of problem behavior and flexibility during problem-solving. Identifying existing procedural and analytic methods arranged in basic/preclinical research could be used by basic and preclinical researchers to develop novel approaches to study resurgence, whereas translational and clinical researchers could identify potential approaches to combating relapse during behavioral interventions. Despite the study of resurgence for over half a century, there have been no systematic reviews of the basic/preclinical research on resurgence. To characterize the procedural and analytic methods used in basic/preclinical research on resurgence, we performed a systematic review consistent with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). We identified 120 articles consisting of 200 experiments that presented novel empirical research, examined operant behavior, and included standard elements of a resurgence procedure. We reported prevalence and trends in over 60 categories, including participant characteristics (e.g., species, sample size, disability), designs (e.g., single subject, group), procedural characteristics (e.g., responses, reinforcer types, control conditions), criteria defining resurgence (e.g., single test, multiple tests, relative to control), and analytic strategies (e.g., inferential statistics, quantitative analysis, visual inspection). We make some recommendations for future basic, preclinical, and clinical research based on our findings of this expanding literature.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40614-022-00361-y.

Validating Human-Operant Software: A Case Example

Human-operant experiments conducted with computer software facilitate translational research by assessing the generality of basic research findings and exploring previously untested predictions about behavior in a cost-effective and efficient manner. However, previous human-operant research with computer-based tasks has included little or no description of rigorous validation procedures for the experimental apparatus (i.e., the software used in the experiment). This omission, combined with a general lack of guidance regarding how to thoroughly validate experimental software, introduces the possibility that nascent researchers may insufficiently validate their computer-based apparatus. In this paper, we provide a case example to demonstrate the rigor required to validate experimental software by describing the procedures we used to validate the apparatus reported by Smith and Greer (2021) to assess relapse via a crowdsourcing platform. The validation procedures identified several issues with early iterations of the software, demonstrating how failing to validate human-operant software can introduce confounds into similar experiments. We describe our validation procedures in detail so that others exploring similar computer-based research may have an exemplar for the rigorous testing needed to validate computer software to ensure precision and reliability in computer-based, human-operant experiments.

Quantifying increases in problem behavior following downshifts in reinforcement: A retrospective analysis and replication

The recurrence of a previously eliminated or reduced behavior following a downshift in alternative reinforcement is referred to as resurgence. Resurgence as Choice (RaC) is a quantitative model of behavioral persistence that posits that resurgence is governed by the same behavioral principles that underlie choice behavior. Consistent with the predictions of RaC, extant basic research with animals indicates that resurgence increases as an exponential function of the size of the downshift in alternative reinforcement. Recently, Shahan and Greer (2021) extended this finding to resurgence of problem behavior during schedule thinning following functional communication training (FCT). They found that when resurgence occurred, it increased exponentially as a function of relative decrements in reinforcer availability during schedule thinning with compound schedules of reinforcement. The purpose of the current study was to directly replicate the analytic procedures described in Shahan and Greer to examine resurgence of problem behavior during schedule thinning following FCT using two novel clinical datasets. Our results closely replicate the findings from Shahan and Greer, providing additional support for the generality of resurgence during downshifts in alternative reinforcement in clinical contexts. These results also highlight the potential applicability of RaC for modeling resurgence of problem behavior during FCT schedule thinning.

Modeling resurgence with an evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics

McDowell's (2004) Evolutionary Theory of Behavior Dynamics (ETBD) is a computational theory that has reproduced a wide variety of behavioral phenomena observed in material reality. Here, we extended the generality of the ETBD by successfully replicating laboratory studies of resurgence with live animals using artificial organisms (AOs) animated by the theory. We ran AOs on concurrent random-interval random-interval (conc RI RI) schedules of reinforcement wherein one alternative (i.e., a target behavior) was reinforced while the other alternative (i.e., an alternative behavior) was not reinforced. Then, we placed the target behavior on extinction and reinforced the alternative response, producing a shift in allocation of responding from the target behavior to the alternative response. Finally, schedule thinning of the alternative response (i.e., downshifts) resulted in resurgence of target behavior. Our findings indicated that resurgence increased as a function of the relative downshift in reinforcement rate and magnitude, replicating findings from previous studies with live animals. These results further illustrate the utility of the ETBD for generating dynamic behavioral data and serve as a proof-of-concept for a novel computational approach for studying and understanding resurgence in future studies.

Relapse during the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders

Resurgence and renewal are treatment-relapse phenomena in which previously extinguished behavior returns after the conditions for an alternative response worsen or the context changes, respectively. Recently, researchers have evaluated the prevalence of resurgence and renewal when treating destructive behavior with functional communication training. However, resurgence of inappropriate mealtime behavior has yet to be evaluated; perhaps because treatments involve qualitatively different resurgence opportunities (e.g., increased bite-presentation rate). We evaluated the prevalence of resurgence and renewal of inappropriate mealtime behavior across 22 and 25 applications of extinction-based treatments, respectively. Resurgence occurred in 41% (9/22) of applications, most often following presentation-rate increases. Renewal occurred in 52% (13/25) of applications, most often following feeder changes from therapist to caregiver. We discuss these findings in terms of their ability to inform relapse-mitigation strategies for resurgence and renewal of inappropriate mealtime behavior.

The effects of large, small, and thinning magnitudes of alternative reinforcement on resurgence

Resurgence refers to an increase of a previously reinforced target behavior following the worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative behavior. There is evidence to suggest that alternative reinforcers of greater magnitude are more effective at reducing target responding but may also result in more resurgence when removed. Similar effects have been observed with high rates of alternative reinforcement. However, in clinical settings, reinforcement rate thinning is used to reduce the likelihood of resurgence associated with higher rates of alternative reinforcement. Given the clinical importance of alternative reinforcer magnitude, it is necessary to evaluate how reinforcer magnitude thinning may impact resurgence as well. Following Phase 1 in which target responding was reinforced, rats earned either large (six pellets), small (one pellet), or thinned (reduced from six pellets to one across sessions) magnitude reinforcement for alternative responding during target-response extinction in Phase 2. Then, alternative responding was placed on extinction for all groups in Phase 3. Target responding was comparably elevated at the end of Phase 2 for groups Small and Thin compared to group Large. In Phase 3, resurgence was evident only in group Large but target responding remained relatively elevated in groups Small and Thin. These results provide additional evidence of the important interplay between conditions of alternative reinforcement and the persistence and resurgence of target responding.

Phase duration and resurgence

Resurgence, the recurrence of responding due to a worsening of reinforcement conditions for current behavior, is a prevalent form of treatment relapse. Resurgence as Choice in Context predicts that increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for target responding during Phase 1 will increase resurgence magnitude, whereas increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for alternative responding and extinction for target responding during Phase 2 will decrease resurgence magnitude. We conducted an experiment evaluating these predictions with human participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. We varied Phase 1 and Phase 2 durations across 4 experimental groups. Resurgence as Choice in Context successfully predicted the differences in resurgence magnitude across these groups, and fitting the quantitative model to the obtained data yielded an exceptional coefficient of determination. We discuss the implications of these results for using Resurgence as Choice in Context to inform experiments with human participants and the feasibility of using human-operant preparations to evaluate resurgence.

Resurgence during transitions from variable- to fixed-interval schedules

The effects of local periods of extinction on resurgence following transitions from variable-interval (VI) to fixed-interval (FI) schedules were studied using four pigeons exposed to a within-session resurgence procedure. Each session was divided into a Training (T) Alternative-Reinforcement (AR), and Resurgence Test (RT) phase. During the T phase, key pecking was reinforced under a VI 60-s schedule on one key. In the AR phase, responses reinforced in the T phase were extinguished, while responses to a different key were reinforced under a VI 90-s schedule. Next, responding to the same key that produced reinforcers in the AR phase was reinforced according to four different RT conditions: RT phase I (FI 90 s), RT phase II (FI 180 s), RT phase III (FI 45 s), or RT phase IV (extinction). The frequency of resurgence generally was an inverse function of the rate of reinforcement in the RT phase. Resurgence occurred less often when reinforcers were delivered under the FI 45-s schedule and more often under leaner schedules in the RT phase, peaking under extinction. The results show that resurgence may occur during local periods of extinction, with larger and more consistent effects occurring when the rate of reinforcement in the RT condition is leaner than it was during the preceding AR phase.

Empirically Deriving Omission and Commission Errors for Relapse Tests: A Demonstration of Reverse Translation

Most studies examine treatment relapse by programming contextual changes with perfect treatment integrity or with omission errors in the absence of a context change (i.e., all alternative responses placed on extinction). Recently, Mitteer et al. (2018) examined caregiver behavior in response to a confederate playing the role of a child with destructive behavior, providing the opportunity for researchers to empirically derive reinforcement schedules and test caregiver error patterns within future relapse tests with children. The present study represents a pilot demonstration of methods for reverse translating findings from caregivers to relapse preparations with children. We used a human-operant arrangement with three children with autism spectrum disorder in which they (a) emitted a target response (i.e., pad touch) for a preferred item in a home-like context, (b) emitted an alternative response (e.g., card touch) for the item in a clinic context while the target response was extinguished, and (c) experienced a relapse test in which the experimenter programmed the same low-rate omission and commission errors that caregivers made in the prior study within the home-like context. During the relapse test, target responding approximated or exceeded baseline ranges for all cases, and alternative behavior extinguished for two of the three cases. We discuss how researchers might incorporate similar translation processes in future relapse research.

The extinction burst: Impact of reinforcement time and level of analysis on measured prevalence

Despite widespread belief in the extinction burst as a common occurrence, relatively little empirical work has focused directly on the phenomenon. In order to provide additional data on the topic, we report reanalyses of published extinction-control groups from our laboratory following training with a variety of schedules and reinforcers. In addition, two prospective experiments were conducted in which rats responded for food on FR 5 or FR 1 schedules prior to a within-session transition to extinction. The results of these reanalyses and experiments suggest that the obtained prevalence of the extinction burst was considerably greater when response rates in the first minute of the transition to extinction were considered as compared to when session-wide response rates were considered. In addition, when reinforcement time was included in baseline response-rate calculations, the obtained prevalence of the extinction burst was higher than when reinforcement time was omitted. These findings highlight the importance of measurement and definitional issues in the obtained prevalence of the extinction burst. Further, a closer alignment of such issues across basic and applied research would be desirable in terms of the development of future theories describing the processes giving rise to the extinction burst.

Destructive behavior increases as a function of reductions in alternative reinforcement during schedule thinning: A retrospective quantitative analysis

The behavioral processes determining the magnitude of the resurgence of destructive behavior during reinforcement schedule thinning have yet to be described, despite an uptick in prevalence research on the topic. As predicted by Resurgence as Choice theory, recent animal research has found that resurgence increases with the magnitude of a downshift in alternative reinforcement. Here we reanalyze the data from 2 recent prevalence studies to determine whether the size of the decrease in alternative reinforcement availability predicts the magnitude of resurgence in the clinic. Results from this retrospective analysis suggest that resurgence of destructive behavior increases significantly with decreases in the availability of alternative reinforcement. Implications for future research and translations of theoretical analyses to the clinic are discussed.

Evaluating Extinction, Renewal, and Resurgence of Operant Behavior in Humans with Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing marketplace providing researchers with the opportunity to collect behavioral data from remote participants at a low cost. Recent research demonstrated reliable extinction effects, as well as renewal and resurgence of button pressing with MTurk participants. To further examine the generality of these findings, we replicated and extended these methods across six experiments arranging reinforcement and extinction of a target button press. In contrast to previous findings, we did not observe as reliable of decreases in button pressing during extinction (1) after training with VR or VI schedules of reinforcement, (2) in the presence or absence of context changes, or (3) with an added response cost for button pressing. However, we found that that a 1-point response cost for all button presses facilitated extinction to a greater extent than the absence of response cost. Nevertheless, we observed ABA renewal of button pressing when changing background contexts across phases and resurgence when extinguishing presses on an alternative button. Our findings suggest that MTurk could be a viable platform from which to ask and address questions about extinction and relapse processes, but further procedural refinements will be necessary to improve the replicability of control by experimental contingencies.

Examination of alternative-response discrimination training and resurgence in rats

Resurgence is an increase in a previously reinforced behavior following a worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced behavior. Discrimination training is incorporated into treatment for problem behavior to prevent treatment adherence failures that may result in resurgence. There is evidence that resurgence may be reduced when a stimulus that signals alternative-response extinction is present compared with absent; however, the generality of this effect is unknown given the limited testing conditions. The goal of the present experiments was to further examine the effects of such stimuli in a reverse-translational evaluation using rats. Target responding was reinforced in baseline and then placed on extinction in the following discrimination-training phase. An alternative response was differentially reinforced in a two-component multiple schedule where one stimulus (i.e., S^D) signaled alternative-response reinforcement and the other (i.e., S^Δ) signaled extinction. Experiment 1 assessed resurgence in both the S^Δ and S^D when alternative reinforcement was removed. Experiment 2 evaluated resurgence under conditions that better approximated those used in the clinic in which the alternative-response S^Δ was present or absent. The S^Δ failed to suppress target responding during resurgence testing in both experiments. These findings suggest that the conditions under which an alternative-response S^Δ will successfully mitigate resurgence may be limited and require further research.

Recaída de Variabilidade Operante com a Combinação dos Procedimentos de Renovação, Restabelecimento e Ressurgência

Resumo O reaparecimento de variabilidade comportamental previamente extinta (i.e., recaída) foi investigado por meio dos modelos experimentais de renovação, restabelecimento e ressurgência. Na Fase de Treino (contexto A), ao serem expostos ao esquema múltiplo Lag 10 Acoplado, ratos apresentaram níveis similares de variabilidade nos dois componentes. Na Fase de Eliminação (contexto B), o esquema múltiplo Repetição Repetição promoveu a extinção da variabilidade. Na Fase de Teste (contexto A), com a suspensão da contingência de repetição e a liberação de reforços independentes, a variabilidade reapareceu no componente “Lag 10”, anteriormente correlacionado com reforçamento da variação, mas não no componente “Acoplado”. Esse resultado sugere que a variabilidade observada no teste de recaída corresponde à variabilidade operante, e não à variabilidade induzida pela extinção.

Further evaluation of a nonsequential approach to studying operant renewal

Basic-laboratory assessments of renewal may inform clinical efforts to maintain reduction of severe destructive behavior when clients transition between contexts. The contextual changes arranged during standard renewal procedures, however, do not necessarily align with those that clients experience during outpatient therapy. More specifically, clients transition between clinical (associated with extinction for target behavior) and home/community (associated with reinforcement for target behavior) contexts during outpatient treatment. Standard renewal assessments do not incorporate these contextual alternations during treatment. The present experiment aimed to directly compare renewal of rats' lever pressing following a standard ("sequential") ABA renewal procedure (i.e., baseline in Context A, extinction in Context B, renewal test in Context A) and a "nonsequential" renewal assessment wherein treatment consisted of daily alternation between Context A (associated with reinforcement for lever pressing) and Context B (associated with extinction). Lever pressing renewed to a greater extent for rats in the Nonsequential group than for rats in the Sequential group, suggesting the contextual changes that clients experience during outpatient treatment for severe destructive behavior may be a variable that is important to consider in translational research on renewal. Potential implications of these findings for basic and clinical research on renewal are discussed.

An investigation of resurgence of reinforced behavioral variability in humans

The present study examined resurgence of reinforced variability in college students, who completed a 3-phase computer-based variability task. In the first phase, baseline, points were delivered for drawing rectangles that sufficiently differed from previous rectangles in terms of a target dimension (size or location, counterbalanced) but were sufficiently similar in terms of the alternative dimension. In the second phase, alternative, points were only delivered for rectangles that were sufficiently different in terms of the alternative dimension, but repetitive in terms of the target dimension. In the third phase, extinction, no points were delivered. In baseline, participants made rectangles that were highly varied in terms of the target dimension and less varied in terms of the alternative dimension, and vice versa in the alternative phase. During extinction, levels of variability increased for the target dimension, providing evidence for resurgence of reinforced variability of a specific dimension of behavior. However, levels of variability also remained high for the alternative dimension, indicating that extinction-induced response variability may also have impacted the results. Although future research is needed to explore other explanations, the results of this study replicate prior research with pigeons and provide some support for the notion of variability as an operant.

Resurgence and downshifts in alternative reinforcement rate

Resurgence refers to an increase in a previously suppressed target behavior with a relative worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative behavior. This experiment examined the relation between resurgence and the magnitude of a reduction in the rate of reinforcement for the alternative behavior. Groups of both male and female rats initially pressed a target lever for food on a variable-interval (VI) 30-s schedule. In a second phase, responding to the target lever was extinguished for all groups and pressing an alternative lever was reinforced on a VI 10-s schedule. Next, the rate of reinforcement for alternative behavior was reduced differentially across groups by arranging extinction, VI 80-s, VI 40-s, VI 20-s, or continued VI 10-s reinforcement. Target responding increased as an exponential function of the magnitude of the reduction in alternative reinforcement rates. With the exception that males appeared to show higher rates of target responding in baseline and higher rates of alternative responding in other phases, the overall pattern of responding across phases was not meaningfully different between sexes. The pattern of both target and alternative response rates across sessions and phases was well described quantitatively by the Resurgence as Choice in Context model.

Resurgence without overall worsening of alternative reinforcement

Three experiments were conducted with pigeons to assess discriminated periods of nonreinforcement as precipitators of resurgence. Each experiment occurred in three phases. In the Training phase, key-pecking was reinforced according to variable-interval schedules that alternated between two response keys (Experiment 1) or were concurrently available on two response keys (Experiments 2a & 2b). In the Alternative-Reinforcement phase, responding to one key was extinguished, while that to the other was reinforced according to tandem schedules. These then were replaced by chained schedules with the same programmed reinforcement rate in the Resurgence-Test phase. Resurgence occurred both when the signaled period of nonreinforcement was a darkened keylight in the terminal link of the chain schedule (Experiment 1) and a darkened keylight (Experiment 2a) or keylight color change (Experiment 2b) in the initial link of the chain schedule. Thus, signaled periods of extinction, without accompanying reductions in reinforcement rate, precipitated resurgence, suggesting that resurgence is not the result of worsening of overall reinforcement conditions, but also occurs when local conditions of reinforcement are worsened.

Resurgence of punishment-suppressed cocaine seeking in rats

Alternative reinforcement-based treatments are among the most effective for reducing substance abuse. However, relapse often occurs when alternative reinforcement ends. Relapse following the loss of alternative reinforcement is called resurgence. An animal model has been used to study basic factors that may ultimately reduce resurgence but uses drug unavailability (i.e., extinction) to reduce drug seeking. In humans, drug abstinence is thought to be a product of aversive consequences associated with drug use rather than extinction. This discrepancy is important because the environmental and neurobiological factors involved in relapse may differ between punished and extinguished behavior. Experiment 1 evaluated resurgence of previously punished cocaine seeking. In Phase 1, rats earned cocaine for pressing levers. In Phase 2, cocaine remained available, but lever pressing also produced mild foot shocks while an alternative response produced food pellets for 1 group but not for another group. In Phase 3, alternative reinforcement and punishment were removed and resurgence of cocaine seeking occurred only in rats previously exposed to alternative reinforcement. In Experiment 2, resurgence was evaluated similarly, except that consequences of cocaine seeking (i.e., punishment and cocaine) remained available during Phase 3. Resurgence did not occur in either group during Experiment 2. The animal models of resurgence developed herein could increase translational utility and improve examination of the environmental and neurobiological factors underlying resurgence of drug seeking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Repeated resurgence with and without a context change

Resurgence is the reoccurrence of a target response when reinforcement for a more recently reinforced alternative response is eliminated or reduced. The present study arranged two successive three-phase procedures to assess whether resurgence decreases with repeated assessments. Moreover, we arranged a contextual change from the first to second assessment for some groups. Phase 1 reinforced a target response on a touchscreen computer with typically developing adults as participants according to either variable-ratio or variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. Phase 2 extinguished target responding and reinforced alternative responding. Phase 3 tested for resurgence by extinguishing alternative responding. Resurgence reliably occurred in all tests and decreased from the first to second exposure to the procedures but there were no effects of context change. Therefore, repeated exposures to resurgence tests reduced those effects but contextual changes had no effect.

Operant renewal of desirable behavior in a simulated workplace: A translational model

Organizational settings are replete with changing stimulus contexts and contingencies, which makes relapse a particularly relevant framework for understanding the ways in which controlling stimuli influence employee responding. The purpose of the current study was to develop a translational model to assess renewal of desirable behavior in a simulated workplace with neurotypical adults. Experiment 1 assessed renewal of desirable behavior using a computerized check processing task. Experiment 2 extended the findings and the translational utility of the experimental arrangement to implementation of a behavior-analytic teaching procedure. Results across both experiments demonstrated renewal of desirable behavior. Overall, the current methodology and findings extend the human operant literature on renewal and demonstrate a translational model that brings together operant renewal and organizational behavior management.

The control response in assessing resurgence: Useful or compromised tool?

Resurgence experiments sometimes include an operandum on which a history of reinforcement has not been experimentally established. The purpose of this control operandum is to rule out a generalized increase in responding when the alternative response is extinguished as being the cause of the resurgent target response. A review of the results of experiments conducted with both nonhumans and humans in which a control operandum was included shows that control- operandum responding is more common in the latter and almost nonexistent in the former. Both the presence and absence of responding on the control operandum, however, are subject to multiple interpretations thereby rendering it a compromised tool. Alternatives to using a control operandum to rule out extinction induction as the basis for resurgence include a preresurgence test control procedure and a differential resurgence procedure.

A preliminary evaluation of treatment duration on the resurgence of destructive behavior

Quantitative models of resurgence (e.g., Behavioral Momentum Theory, Resurgence as Choice) suggest that resurgence is partly a function of the duration of extinction exposure, with longer histories of extinction producing less resurgence. This prediction is supported by some laboratory research and has been partially supported by clinical translations that did not isolate the effects of extinction exposure prior to testing for resurgence. The degree to which different histories of extinction impact the likelihood of treatment relapse in therapeutic applications of differential reinforcement is of great interest to the clinical community, including insurance carriers and other financial providers. In the present study, we isolated the effects of extinction history for severe destructive behavior across 6 participants referred for treatment services and examined resurgence of destructive behavior when alternative reinforcement terminated. Our within-subject evaluation showed no difference in the level of resurgence or persistence of destructive behavior following short and long exposures to differential reinforcement with extinction. We discuss our failure to replicate in relation to experimental-design considerations for investigating this and other relapse phenomena in future research with clinical populations.

Resurgence as Choice: Implications for promoting durable behavior change

Resurgence is an increase in a previously suppressed behavior resulting from a worsening in reinforcement conditions for current behavior. Resurgence is often observed following successful treatment of problem behavior with differential reinforcement when reinforcement for an alternative behavior is subsequently omitted or reduced. The efficacy of differential reinforcement has long been conceptualized in terms of quantitative models of choice between concurrent operants (i.e., the matching law). Here, we provide an overview of a novel quantitative model of resurgence called Resurgence as Choice (RaC), which suggests that resurgence results from these same basic choice processes. We review the failures of the only other quantitative model of resurgence (i.e., Behavioral Momentum Theory) and discuss its shortcomings with respect to the limited range of circumstances about which it makes predictions in applied settings. Finally, we describe how RaC overcomes these shortcomings and discuss implications of the model for promoting durable behavior change.

Resurgence of a target behavior suppressed by a combination of punishment and alternative reinforcement

Differential-reinforcement-based treatments involving extinction of target problem behavior and reinforcement of an alternative behavior are highly effective. However, extinction of problem behavior is sometimes difficult or contraindicated in clinical settings. In such cases, punishment instead of extinction may be used in combination with alternative reinforcement. Although it is well documented that omitting alternative reinforcement can produce recurrence (i.e., resurgence) of behavior previously suppressed by extinction plus alternative reinforcement, it remains unclear if resurgence similarly occurs for behavior previously suppressed by punishment plus alternative reinforcement. The present experiment examined this question with rats. In Phase 1, a target behavior (lever pressing) was reinforced with food pellets. In Phase 2, the target behavior continued to be reinforced, but it also produced mild foot shock and an alternative behavior (nose poking) also produced food. Finally, all consequences were removed and resurgence of target behavior occurred. Resurgence did not occur for another group that similarly received punishment of target behavior in Phase 2 but not alternative reinforcement. These results indicate that resurgence was a product of the history of exposure to and then removal of alternative reinforcement and that the removal of punishment alone did not produce resurgence of target behavior.

Randomization tests as alternative analysis methods for behavior-analytic data

Randomization statistics offer alternatives to many of the statistical methods commonly used in behavior analysis and the psychological sciences, more generally. These methods are more flexible than conventional parametric and nonparametric statistical techniques in that they make no assumptions about the underlying distribution of outcome variables, are relatively robust when applied to small-n data sets, and are generally applicable to between-groups, within-subjects, mixed, and single-case research designs. In the present article, we first will provide a historical overview of randomization methods. Next, we will discuss the properties of randomization statistics that may make them particularly well suited for analysis of behavior-analytic data. We will introduce readers to the major assumptions that undergird randomization methods, as well as some practical and computational considerations for their application. Finally, we will demonstrate how randomization statistics may be calculated for mixed and single-case research designs. Throughout, we will direct readers toward resources that they may find useful in developing randomization tests for their own data.

Baseline reinforcement rate and resurgence of destructive behavior

Concepts from behavioral momentum theory, along with some empirical findings, suggest that the rate of baseline reinforcement may contribute to the relapse of severe destructive behavior. With seven children who engaged in destructive behavior, we tested this hypothesis in the context of functional communication training by comparing the effects of different baseline reinforcement rates on resurgence during a treatment challenge (i.e., extinction). We observed convincing resurgence of destructive behavior in four of seven participants, and we observed more resurgence in the condition associated with high-rate baseline reinforcement (i.e., variable-interval 2 s in Experiment 1 or fixed-ratio 1 in Experiment 2) compared to a low-rate baseline reinforcement condition. We discuss the implications of these results relative to schedules of reinforcement in the treatment of destructive behavior and strategies to mitigate resurgence in clinical settings.

Delivering alternative reinforcement in a distinct context reduces its counter-therapeutic effects on relapse

Delivery of alternative reinforcers in the presence of stimuli previously associated with reinforcement for target behavior increases the susceptibility of target behavior to relapse. To explore contingencies that might mitigate this counter-therapeutic effect, we trained pigeons on a procedure that entailed extinction of previously reinforced target-key pecking, access to a distinct stimulus context contingently on refraining from target behavior (differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior; DRO), and reinforcement of alternative-key pecks (differential-reinforcement of alternative behavior; DRA) in that context. This DRO-DRA treatment was compared with standard DRA in successive conditions, counterbalanced across pigeons. Target behavior extinguished more rapidly in the Standard-DRA condition. When alternative reinforcement was discontinued, however, there was less resurgence after DRO-DRA than after Standard DRA. In a third condition, the DRO contingency was suspended so that the former DRA stimuli were not presented (DRO-NAC), and resurgence was greater than in the Standard-DRA and DRO-DRA conditions. Reinstatement produced by response-independent reinforcers was small and similar across conditions. Subsequent reacquisition of target-key pecking under baseline reinforcement conditions was faster following DRO-NAC than Standard-DRA or DRO-DRA. These findings suggest that DRO-DRA might serve as a useful method in clinical settings for reducing problem behavior while minimizing the threat of posttreatment relapse.

Stimuli previously associated with reinforcement mitigate resurgence

Resurgence refers to the recurrence of an extinguished target behavior following subsequent suspension of alternative reinforcement. Delivery of reinforcers during extinction of alternative behavior has been shown to mitigate resurgence. The present experiment aimed to determine whether delivering stimuli associated with reinforcers during resurgence testing similarly mitigates resurgence. Three groups of rats pressed target levers for food according to variable-interval 15-s schedules during Phase 1. In Phase 2, lever pressing was extinguished, and an alternative nose-poke response produced alternative reinforcement according to a variable-interval 15-s schedule. Food reinforcement was always associated with illumination of the food aperture and an audible click from the pellet dispenser during Phases 1 and 2. Phase 3 treatments differed between groups. For one group, nose poking continued to produce food and food-correlated stimuli. Both of these consequences were suspended for a second group. Finally, nose poking produced food-correlated stimuli but not food for a third group. Target-lever pressing resurged in the group that received no consequences and in the group that received only food-correlated stimuli for nose poking. Resurgence, however, was smaller for the group that received food-correlated stimuli than for the group that received no consequences for nose poking. Target-lever pressing did not increase between phases in the group that continued to receive food and associated stimuli. Thus, delivery of stimuli associated with food reinforcement after suspension of food reduced but did not eliminate resurgence of extinguished lever pressing. These findings contribute to potential methodologies for preventing relapse of extinguished problem behavior in clinical settings.

On defining resurgence

A review of different investigators' definitions of resurgence revealed several common features: First, characteristics of the resurgent, or target, response, such as its transience; magnitude; time course within and across sessions; and relativity to a baseline response rate are not mentioned. Second, the target response is described as being established through its reinforcement in the first, or Training, phase of a resurgence procedure. Third, the target response must be eliminated as an alternative response is reinforced in the second, Alternative Reinforcement, phase of a resurgence procedure. Fourth, the alternative response must be extinguished during the Resurgence Test phase. Fifth, none of the definitions allude to any contribution of stimulus variables to resurgence. When reconsidered in light of contemporary research germane to these features, none of the reviewed definitions sufficiently reflect important variables in the generation and assessment of resurgence. The review concludes with a proposed working definition that takes into account contemporary research involving all of the aforementioned factors.