Renewal after the punishment of free operant behavior (original) (raw)
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Resurgence is often defined as the recurrence of an extinguished behavior when a more recently reinforced alternative behavior is also extinguished. Resurgence has also been observed when the alternative behavior is devalued by other means (e.g., reinforcement rate or magnitude reductions). The present study investigated whether punishment of an alternative behavior would generate resurgence. A target response was reinforced during Phase 1 and then extinguished in Phase 2 while an alternative response was reinforced. During Phase 3, response‐dependent foot shocks were superimposed on the schedule of reinforcement for the alternative response and shock intensity was escalated gradually across sessions. Resurgence of the target response was reliably observed, mostly at higher intensities. The effect was replicated in two subsequent exposures to the sequence of conditions, with resurgence tending to occur at the lowest foot shock intensity. These results suggest that devaluation of an alternative behavior via punishment can generate resurgence. Although it is difficult to reconcile the overall pattern of results with Bouton's context account, these findings are consistent with the suggestion that resurgence results from a “worsening of conditions” for the alternative behavior and with the formalization of that suggestion in terms of a choice‐based matching‐law account (i.e., Resurgence as Choice).
A reminder of extinction reduces relapse in an animal model of voluntary behavior
Learning & Memory, 2017
One experiment with rats explored whether an extinction-cue prevents the recovery of extinguished lever-pressing responses. Initially, rats were trained to perform one instrumental response (R1) for food in Context A, and a different instrumental response (R2) in Context B. Then, responses were extinguished each in the alternate context (R1 in Context B; R2 in Context A). For one group, extinction of both responses was conducted in the presence of an extinction-cue, whereas in a second group, the extinction-cue only accompanied extinction of R1. During a final test, we observed that returning the rats to the initial acquisition context renewed performance and that response recovery was attenuated in the presence of the cue that accompanied extinction of the response. The impact of the extinction-cue, however, was not transferred to the response that has been extinguished without the cue. Our results are consistent with the idea that extinction established an inhibitory cueresponse association.
The role of contextual associations in producing the partial reinforcement acquisition deficit
Three conditioned suppression experiments with rats as subjects assessed the contributions of the conditioned stimulus (CS)– context and context– unconditioned stimulus (US) associations to the degraded stimulus control by the CS that is observed following partial reinforcement relative to continuous reinforcement training. In Experiment 1, posttraining associative deflation (i.e., extinction) of the training context after partial reinforcement restored responding to a level comparable to the one produced by continuous reinforcement. In Experiment 2, posttraining associative inflation of the context (achieved by administering unsignaled outcome presentations in the context) enhanced the detrimental effect of partial reinforcement. Experiment 3 found that the training context must be an effective competitor to produce the partial reinforcement acquisition deficit. When the context was down-modulated, the target regained behavioral control thereby demonstrating higher-order retrospective revaluation. The results are discussed in terms of retrospective revaluation, and are used to contrast the predictions of a performancefocused model with those of an acquisition-focused model.
Suppressing effects of aversive stimulation on subsequently punished behaviour
Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie, 1964
To determine whether or not the residual effects of pre-shock are dependent on the use of the same aversive stimulus during original treatment and subsequent testing, three experiments were conducted in which different aversive stimuli were used in the treatment and test situations. In Experiment I, two groups of ten rats each were either pre-shocked or not pre-shocked and later subjected to loud noise whenever they pressed a lever to obtain nourishment. In Experiment II, four groups of nine rats each were either pre-shocked and later subjected to loud noise whenever they broke a photocell beam in their exploration of the test chamber, pre-shocked and not punished, not pre-shocked and punished, or not pre-shocked and not punished. In Experiment III, two groups of ten rats each were either sleep-deprived or left unmolested and later both groups were tested in an approach-avoidance conflict situation involving electric shock. The results of the three experiments, taken together, agreed in indicating that prior aversive stimulation increased the suppressing value of subsequent punishment and that there were no appreciable effects of the original aversive stimulation in the absence of punishment. It is concluded that the effects of aversive stimulation are not necessarily restricted to the modality under which they are experienced. IT WAS RECENTLY REPORTED that prior experience with inescapable electric shock results in an increase in resistance to extinction of an acquired-fear response (Kurtz & Pearl, 1960), in greater disruptive effects during an approach-avoidance conflict task (Kurtz & Walters, 1962), and in an increase in the suppressing effects of punishment on unconditioned activity (Pearl, 1963). In all of these studies an attempt was made to study the residual effects of pre-shock, apart from any conditioned emotionality aroused by a specific CS paired with pre-shock, by minimizing the similarity of cues in the treatment and test situations. Moreover, the results of the Kurtz and Pearl (1960) study indicated that stimulus generalization of fear was not an important determinant of the transfer observed. One of the major questions which remained unanswered in this study was whether or not the transfer was dependent solely on the use of a common aversive stimulus in the original treatment and iExperiment I-was abstracted from J.P.'s M.A. thesis directed by K. H. Kurtz at the University of Buffalo; Experiment II was conducted by J.P. at Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute; Experiment III was conducted by G.C.W. and D.C.A. at the University of Portland.
Contextual control over conditioned responding in a latent inhibition paradigm
Journal of Experimental Psychology-animal Behavior Processes, 2000
Four experiments studied contextual control over rats' freezing to conditioned stimuli (CSs) that had been paired with shock and were then extinguished. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to a CS A-shock and a CS B-shock pairing in Context C. CS A was then extinguished in Context A, and CS B in Context B. Freezing was renewed when each CS was presented in the context where the other CS had been extinguished. In Experiments 2-4, rats were exposed to a CS A-shock pairing in A and a CS B-shock pairing in B. They were then exposed to Context C where one, both, or neither of the CSs were extinguished, or where both CSs continued to be reinforced. On test, the rats froze more to CS A than to CS B in Context A, and more to CS B than to CS A in Context B, but only if the CSs had been extinguished. Thus, after extinction, rats use contexts to regulate retrieval not only of their memory for extinction, but also of their memory for the original conditioning episode.
2019
Operant conditioning is a psychological theory about learning through positive and negative reinforcement which has been researched for decades. However, some fundamental components of this theory have not yet been thoroughly researched, such as its interaction with long-term retention and context. These components are essential if we want to understand how operant conditioning applies in everyday life outside a human Skinner box. A computerized task was constructed based on reinforcement learning through operant conditioning. Data from 33 subjects were collected from two separate days of testing. During the first day, subjects learned associations between symbols and monetary outcomes under two different contexts. Five days later, memory retention was measured for these associations. In addition, a context manipulation was executed so that retention was tested in the same or switched context. The study found no significant difference for context the manipulation but a significant i...
The Return of Extinguished Conditioned Behaviour in Humans: New Research and Future Directions
The last five years has seen an explosion of interest in research on the return of extinguished conditioned behaviour in humans. This interest has resulted from the development of theoretical models of the phenomenon from non-human animal research and the potential application that the research has to explaining relapse following extinction-based treatments for psychological disorders. The recent research conducted with human participants is reviewed. The main return of conditioned behaviour phenomena are renewal, reinstatement, spontaneous recovery, and reacquisition, although recent human research has tended to focus on only the first two. Human research has employed three main paradigms in the laboratory: fear conditioning procedures, a conditioned suppression task, and causal learning tasks.
Contextual control of conditioning is not affected by extinction in a behavioral task with humans
Learning & behavior, 2015
The Attentional Theory of Context Processing (ATCP) states that extinction will arouse attention to contexts resulting in learning becoming contextually controlled. Participants learned to suppress responding to colored sensors in a video-game task where contexts were provided by different gameplay backgrounds. Four experiments assessed the contextual control of simple excitatory learning acquired to a test stimulus (T) after (Exp. 1) or during (Exp. 2-4) extinction of another stimulus (X). Experiment 1 produced no evidence of contextual control of T, though renewal to X was present both at the time T was trained and tested. In Experiment 2 no contextual control of T was evident when X underwent extensive conditioning and extinction. In Experiment 3 no contextual control of T was evident after extensive conditioning and extinction of X, and renewal to X was present. In Experiment 4 contextual control was evident to T, but it neither depended upon nor was enhanced by extinction of X....
Contextual control over conditioned responding in an extinction paradigm
Journal of Experimental Psychology-animal Behavior Processes, 2000
Four experiments studied contextual control over rats' freezing to conditioned stimuli (CSs) that had been paired with shock and were then extinguished. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to a CS A-shock and a CS B-shock pairing in Context C. CS A was then extinguished in Context A, and CS B in Context B. Freezing was renewed when each CS was presented in the context where the other CS had been extinguished. In Experiments 2-4, rats were exposed to a CS A-shock pairing in A and a CS B-shock pairing in B. They were then exposed to Context C where one, both, or neither of the CSs were extinguished, or where both CSs continued to be reinforced. On test, the rats froze more to CS A than to CS B in Context A, and more to CS B than to CS A in Context B, but only if the CSs had been extinguished. Thus, after extinction, rats use contexts to regulate retrieval not only of their memory for extinction, but also of their memory for the original conditioning episode.