Early extinction effects following intermittent reinforcement: Little evidence of extinction bursts

Reinforcer value moderates response magnitude and persistence during extinction: A randomized trial

Extinction bursts, or temporary increases in rates and intensities of behavior during extinction, can preclude the inclusion of extinction in intervention packages meant to suppress severe challenging behavior. To identify underlying behavioral mechanisms responsible for response persistence and bursting, 69 adults with developmental disabilities completed a low-stakes translational investigation employing a 2 × 2 factorial, crossed, and randomized matched blocks design, with batched randomization logic. In each of the four test groups, we made distinct antecedent manipulations with two value parameters commonly studied through behavioral economics (i.e., demand intensity, Pmax) and evaluated the extent to which each of these manipulations influenced target responding during extinction. Although we found statistically significant differences attributable to both parameters, variations in reinforcer consumption relative to demand intensity were most influential across all dependent variables. This outcome implicates consumption relative to demand intensity as both a mitigating and exacerbating preextinction factor that influences the prevalence of adverse collateral extinction effects (e.g., bursts).

Descriptive characteristics of extinction bursts: A record review

Procedural extinction is sometimes associated with a temporary increase in responding known as an extinction burst. Extinction bursts present unique challenges in the context of treating behavior targeted for reduction. The present study updates the prevalence of extinction bursts using a clinical sample (N = 108) receiving treatment for targeted behavior. The prevalence of extinction bursts in our sample (24%) was consistent with that in prior literature. The extinction-burst magnitude decreased across sessions after extinction was contacted during treatment, but this sample did not demonstrate decreased persistence or magnitude of extinction bursts across successive transitions from baseline to treatment. We also examined the prevalence and magnitude of extinction bursts based on the function and topography of targeted behavior and treatment components and found no consistent relation among these variables. These findings should lead clinicians to prepare for transient extinction bursts when implementing extinction-based treatment for challenging behavior.

Problems with "problem behavior": A secondary systematic review of intervention research on transition-age autistic youth

LAY ABSTRACT

In a previous study, we looked at research done on strategies to support autistic people who were between 14 and 22 years old. For this study, we looked at all of the studies in our previous study that tried to decrease or stop autistic people from doing certain things-many researchers call these things "problem behavior." There were 48 studies that tried to reduce problem behavior, and most of them used strategies like prompting and reinforcement to try get autistic people to change their behavior. We found many things wrong with these studies. Most of them did not define the group of behaviors they were trying to stop autistic people from doing. None of the studies looked at whether any side effects happened when they tried the strategy they were studying. Also, most of the studies tried to stop autistic people from doing behaviors that probably were not harmful, like stereotypic behavior. Most of the studies did not say how they decided that the behaviors they tried to stop were a problem for the autistic people in the study, and most studies did not try to figure out why the autistic people in the study did the behaviors the researchers were trying to stop them from doing.

Basic and applied research on extinction bursts

Discontinuation of the contingency between a response and its reinforcer sometimes produces a temporary increase in the response before its rate decreases, a phenomenon called the extinction burst. Prior clinical and basic studies on the prevalence of the extinction burst provide highly disparate estimates. Existing theories on the extinction burst fail to account for the dynamic nature of this phenomenon, and the basic behavioral processes that control response bursting remain poorly understood. In this paper, we first review the basic and applied literature on the extinction burst. We then describe a recent refinement of the concatenated matching law called the temporally weighted matching law that appears to resolve the above-mentioned issues regarding the extinction burst. We present illustrative translational data based conceptually on the model. Finally, we discuss specific recommendations derived from the temporally weighted matching law regarding procedures clinicians could implement to potentially mitigate or prevent extinction bursts.

Motivational state-dependent renewal and reinstatement of operant responding under food and water deprivation states

Most studies of operant relapse phenomena have studied the role of exteroceptive discriminative features of context in the recovery of behavior after extinction. Interoceptive stimuli (i.e., stimuli arising from the bodies of organisms) may also serve as a part of learning contexts and contribute to relapse. Recent studies have demonstrated that events that function as motivating operations (MOs) may contribute to relapse both by a) eliciting interoceptive conditions that serve as a discriminative context for relapse (i.e., discriminative function) and b) altering the amount of operant responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli associated with reinforcers (i.e., motivational function). The current study examined interactions between these functions of food and water deprivation MOs in the relapse of operant behavior. During acquisition of an operant response, one group of mice was food-deprived and another was water-deprived. The groups then received extinction sessions under the opposite condition. Renewal and reinstatement tests were conducted under both conditions, and more renewal and reinstatement were observed in the motivational states in which acquisition occurred for each. These results are discussed in the context of state-dependent learning.

A Theory of the Extinction Burst

A preliminary theory of a temporary increase in the rate of an operant response with the transition to extinction (i.e., the extinction burst) is proposed. The theory assumes reinforcers are events permitting access to some valuable activity, and that such activity can compete for allocation with the target response under some conditions (e.g., very high reinforcement rates). With the transition to extinction, elimination of this competition for allocation can produce an increase in the the target response, but the increase is transient because the value of the target response decreases with exposure to extinction. The theory provides a way to understand why the extinction burst is not ubiquitous, seems more common following very small ratio schedules, occurs for a short period of time following the transition to extinction, and may be eliminated with the availability of alternative reinforcement. It appears to provide a reasonable starting point for a theory of the extinction burst that does not necessarily require inclusion of invigorating effects of frustration, and it is closely aligned with Resurgence as Choice theory. Additional research on factors modulating reinforcement-related activities and how they affect the extinction burst could help to further evaluate the theory.

Grounding applied animal behavior practices in the experimental analysis of behavior

Some of the earliest applications outside the laboratory of principles derived from the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), such as the pioneering work of Keller and Marian Breland, involved animals. This translational tradition continues to the present as EAB-related behavior principles are applied with increasing frequency to behavior management and training practices with animals in nonlaboratory settings. Such translations, and those populations to which they are applied, benefit from a rigorous experimental analysis of practices that are promulgated in popular outlets. These translations both affirm the generality of those principles and serve as goads for laboratory and field research that can further articulate extant principles, develop new ones, and refine methods of application and assessment. This review considered several areas of basic EAB research and contemporary applied animal behavior (AAB) practices in relation to one another: (1) response establishment and maintenance, (2) response reduction and elimination, (3) chaining and conditioned reinforcement, and (4) discriminative stimulus control. Within each topic, a selection of processes and procedures in both EAB and AAB work were reviewed in relation to one another.

Optogenetic stimulation of striatal patches modifies habit formation and inhibits dopamine release

Habits are inflexible behaviors that develop after extensive repetition, and overreliance on habits is a hallmark of many pathological states. The striatum is involved in the transition from flexible to inflexible responding, and interspersed throughout the striatum are patches, or striosomes, which make up ~15% of the volume of the striatum relative to the surrounding matrix compartment. Previous studies have suggested that patches are necessary for normal habit formation, but it remains unknown exactly how patches contribute to habit formation and expression. Here, using optogenetics, we stimulated striatal patches in Sepw1-NP67 mice during variable interval training (VI60), which is used to establish habitual responding. We found that activation of patches at reward retrieval resulted in elevated responding during VI60 training by modifying the pattern of head entry and pressing. Further, this optogenetic manipulation reduced subsequent responding following reinforcer devaluation, suggesting modified habit formation. However, patch stimulation did not generally increase extinction rates during a subsequent extinction probe, but did result in a small 'extinction burst', further suggesting goal-directed behavior. On the other hand, this manipulation had no effect in omission trials, where mice had to withhold responses to obtain rewards. Finally, we utilized fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to investigate how patch activation modifies evoked striatal dopamine release and found that optogenetic activation of patch projections to the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) is sufficient to suppress dopamine release in the dorsal striatum. Overall, this work provides novel insight into the role of the patch compartment in habit formation, and provides a potential mechanism for how patches modify habitual behavior by exerting control over dopamine signaling.

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.

Early-extinction effects on a force response of humans

Humans were used to investigate changes in response force occurring soon after reinforcement was eliminated. In Experiment 1, in a 300-s baseline phase, 10 participants received a point for holding down a pressure sensor set to operate at a force equal to 85% of the maximum force the participants exerted during a pretest. Following this, during a 600-s extinction phase, criterion responses had no consequence. In Experiment 2, 6 participants worked on the same task, but (a) points were exchangeable for money and (b) after extinction, the reinforcement baseline phase was reinstated. In Experiment 3, 6 participants completed the same task as in Experiment 2, but the required minimum force was 60% of the maximum force exerted during the pretest. In each experiment, increases in response force relative to the mean and peak force exerted during the last 100 s of baseline were observed in most participants when force responses were aggregated into short sample intervals, but less so with longer ones. The increases, however, were not systematic across or within participants, questioning the generality of and the criteria for demonstrating an extinction burst.

What is an extinction burst?: A case study in the analysis of transitional behavior

Among the tactics of experimental science discussed by Sidman (1960) were those used to study transitional behavior. Drawing from his insights, this review considers an often cited but infrequently analyzed aspect of the transition from reinforcement to extinction: the extinction burst. In particular, the review seeks to answer the question posed in its title. The generic definition of an extinction burst as an increase in response rate following the onset of extinction is found to be wanting, raising more questions than it answers. Because questions of definition in science usually come down to those of measurement, the answer to the title's question is suggested to be found in how behavior prior to extinction is maintained and measured, when and how extinction is introduced, and where in time and how behavior early in extinction is measured. This analysis suggests that a single, uniform, and precise definition of the extinction burst is misguided. Examining how each of these facets contributes to what has been described generically as the extinction burst is a small, but important, part of Sidman's methodological legacy to the experimental analysis of behavior.