Examining resurgence following alternating exposures to high- and low-magnitudes of alternative reinforcement

Abstract

Resurgence is the increase in a previously reinforced and then extinguished target response due to a worsening of alternative-reinforcement conditions. Prior preclinical research has demonstrated less resurgence when testing with extinction (1) following lower than higher magnitudes of alternative reinforcement and (2) after alternating between availability and unavailability of alternative reinforcement (on/off) compared with a constant source of alternative reinforcement. In the present experiment with humans recruited via crowdsourcing, we evaluated whether alternating between high and low magnitudes of alternative reinforcement compared with a constant high magnitude alternative reinforcer would mitigate resurgence with either partial or complete (i.e., extinction) downshifts in reinforcer magnitude. High/low alternative reinforcement mitigated resurgence compared with constant alternative reinforcement when testing with a partial reduction in alternative reinforcement but not with extinction. As with on/off alternative reinforcement, high/low alternative reinforcement likely mitigates resurgence by increasing generalization between conditions. Though these findings show promise as a new approach to mitigate resurgence, further research with additional controls for reinforcer rates is needed to further isolate these effects.