Resurgence
How are Newton's laws applied to behavior?
1) A behavior that is currently occurring will continue to occur until acted on by an outside force/disruptor (When the environment is static, response rate tends to maintain at a steady state) 2) The deceleration of that behavior when it contacts the external force (disruptor) depends on the magnitude of the disruptor and the mass of the behavior
How does resurgence of inappropriate behavior arise?
1) DRA procedure, where the environment is manipulated so that the undesired behavior is no longer reinforced and a more appropriate alternative response is trained (if needed) and reinforced 2) DRA procedure mirrors the first two phases of resurgence studies 3) What happens if the DRA is not implemented with high treatment integrity?
What are the common disrupters?
1) Extinction 2) Satiation (Prior access to "free" or time-based deliveries of a reinforcer may also disrupt responding in applied settings) 3) Concurrently available alternative source of reinforcement (•The availability of an alternative source of reinforcement may constitute another type of disruption in applied settings) 4) Concurrent distracting stimulus
How do you measure resurgence?
1) How many responses occur or how much time is allocated to an alternative behavior during the Resurgence Test phase? 2) This measurement could be misleading in the absence of a baseline context 3) Most tests of resurgence take into account the rate of the target response relative to its occurrence in other phases of the experiment 4) Effects of two or more independent variables or values of independent variables on resurgence are directly compared using either multiple or concurrent schedules
What are definitions of resurgence usually missing?
1) Measurement characteristics of the resurgent response such as magnitude and time course within and across sessions and its relation to some behavioral baseline 2) The resurgent response must be established by its reinforcement, which is accomplished in the first, or Training (T) phase of a resurgence procedure 3) The resurgent response must be at least nominally extinguished as an alternative response is reinforced in the second, Alternative Reinforcement (AR), phase of a resurgence procedure 4) The alternative response must be extinguished during the Resurgence Test (RT) phase 5) None of the definitions allude to the role of stimulus variables in resurgence
What are the experimental phases in resurgence?
1) Phase 1- the response is established and reinforced- referred to as B1 2) Phase 2- the response from phase 1 (B1) is placed on extinction and an alternative response (sometimes referred to as B2) is reinforced 3) Phase 3- extinction arranged for both responses ***Resurgence is demonstrated if the levels of B1 are higher in phase 3 than they were at the end of phase 2
Describe the resurgence procedure:
1) Training (T) Phase - Response A (resurgent) is reinforced 2) Alternative Response (AR) Phase - Differential reinforcement of alternative response (Response A is placed on extinction, Response B is reinforced) 3) Resurgence test (RT) phase: Both Behavior A and Behavior B are on extinction *** If the levels of Response A are higher in Phase 3, than at the end of Phase 2, then the resurgence is said to have occurred
What are Newton's 1st and 2nd laws of motion?
1st: An object in motion will remain in motion until acted on by an outside force 2nd: The acceleration or deceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables: a) the external force propelling or disrupting the object, and b) the mass of the object
What are other dimensions of measurement of resurgence?
Duration temporal locus
How does reinforcement history for the target behavior directly determine continued responding during extinction/disruption?
Higher rate of reinforcement in context 1 produced a higher baseline rate of responding, also associated with greater response persistence in extinction One way to promote response persistence of a socially desirable response would be to increase the rate of reinforcement for that response in the presence of some stimulus prior to the possibility of a disruption
Explain the behavioral momentum theory:
It is using Newton's laws of motion as a metaphor for behavior and behavior resistance to extinction
How does behavioral mass relate to persistence of a behavior?
Responses that have been strengthened more (due to increased reinforcement) should be more resistant to the disruptor
What is the redefined definition of resurgence?
Resurgence currently can be understood as the transient recurrence, with consideration of the stimulus context, of some dimension of previously established but not currently occurring activity when reinforcement conditions of current behavior are worsened
Explain how use use of punishment of the B1 response during phase 2 (rather than extinction alone) would prevent B1 from resurging:
Resurgence was evidence in all but one rat in the control group, and in only one rat in the experimental group Results suggest that punishing B1 during Phase 2, when that response was also being extinguished, substantially reduced the probability that the response would resurge in Phase 3
What kind of punishment procedures are used in applied settings to reduce resurgence?
Socially acceptable procedures such as mild verbal reprimands, response cost, and timeout may be used as punishment to suppress resurgence
What is the "velocity" of the behavior?
The rate of a response (i.e., Its velocity according to BMT) is largely determined by the contingency between the response and its reinforcer (i.e., the schedule of reinforcement)
Define resurgence:
The reappearance of previously extinguished behavior during the extinction of more recently reinforced behavior (sometimes referred to as extinction-induced resurgence)
Are behaviors with more behavioral mass more or less resistant?
The relative changes in behavior in each context during extinction should be similar with disruptors other than extinction. That is, a behavior with greater behavioral mass should be more persistent in the presence of any disruptor.
What is the transitory nature of resurgence?
The resurgent behavior will reoccur for a short period of time, but will eventually dissipate to levels near zero as the RT phase continues as engaging the behavior is not reinforced (it is still on extinction)
How does an alternative source of reinforcement affect resistance to extinction?
problem behavior persisted to a greater extent under extinction when reinforcement was previously delivered following both problem behavior and an alternative response (resulting in more reinforcers) than when reinforcement was previously delivered following only problem behavior (resulting in fewer reinforcers)
How do treatment durations affect resurgence?
•BMT predicts that resurgence of problem behavior will be greater in the context in which extinction has remained in place for problem behavior for the briefest amount of time (i.e., context 1) •Conducting additional treatment sessions in which problem behavior does not produce reinforcement (e.g., FCT with extinction, NCR with extinction) should help minimize the possibility of treatment relapse during extinction and other forms of disruption •Clinicians should consider conducting brief probes of performance under less than ideal conditions following stable responding to ensure that the treatment effects are durable •If there is a decrement in performance during these probes, clinicians should consider removing the source of disruption (e.g., by reinstating high levels of treatment integrity, returning to the less distracting context, removing the other individuals) and proceed with treatment as conducted previously
How do alternative rates of reinforcement affect resistance?
•BMT predicts that the context associated with the richer history of reinforcement will occasion more response in the presence of a disruptor, regardless of the type of treatment •One way to mitigate the resurgence of problem behavior is to reduce the rate of alternative reinforcement before the possibility of a disruptor •Leaning the schedule of reinforcement used in a treatment for problem behavior may help offset the possibility of future treatment relapse •Thinning dense reinforcement schedules used to treat problem behavior may decrease the possibility of treatment relapse in the presence of naturally occurring disruptors
How can progressive schedules be used to study resurgence?
•Each session remains in effect until extinction occurs (i.e., a break point of a predetermined time period without a response) This could be followed by extinction of the target response and reinforcement of an alternative response according to a progressive-ratio schedule, the response requirement of which would increment until a break point is reached, with resurgence occurring at some point during the ratio progression
Why is behavioral momentum important?
•Momentum of responding is a useful outcome in many cases, particularly if the goal of intervention is to increase skills and maintain appropriate behavior •The momentum of a response may have untoward effects when the goal of intervention is to decrease problem behavior such as aggression in a classroom or clinic setting •Variables that promote and diminish behavioral mass require consideration because the momentum of appropriate and problem behavior may determine which one prevails in a given stimulus context
What does resurgence look like in applied settings?
•Resurgence sometimes is an adaptive process leading to novel behavior and contributing to creativity and problem solving •Resurgence of inappropriate behavior is also possible
What role do stimulus conditions play in resurgence?
•The conditions in effect in the different phases of the resurgence procedure might be constructed as different context (i.e., stimuli) evoking the resurgent response in the RT phase of a resurgence procedure •Using a concurrent resurgence procedure (cf. da Silva et al., 2008; experiments 2 and 3), Kincaid et al. (2015) transilluminated both response keys white in the T phase •AR Phase: DRO schedules in effect on both response keys, one of the keylights remained white and the other was changed to red •RT Phase: both keylights again were white •Using this procedure it was possible to compare directly resurgence under conventional stimulus conditions (white lights in each phase were the same, what might be labeled AAA) to that produced by an ABA renewal procedure (white-red-white in T, AR, and RT phases, respectively) •Resurgence occurred under both stimulus conditions; however, the added ABA renewal procedure produced far more resurgence (i.e., far more responses in extinction) than did the AAA conventional stimulus condition resurgence procedure
Describe the resurgence procedure by Cook & Lattal (2017)
•Three Potential Responses: 1)Pecking on Key A (left) - target response 2)Pecking on Key B (center) - alternative response 3)Pecking on Key C (right) - control sham - never reinforced •T Phase: Key pecking reinforced on FI 30s schedule until 10 reinforcers were collected for responding on key A, with rates near 0 for keys B and C •AR Phase: Reinforcement of target response discontinued; Reinforcement for alternative response on FI 30 sec schedule until at least 10 reinforcers were collected pecking key B, with rates near 0 for pecking keys A and C •RT Phase: Reinforcement discontinued for all three keys; RT phase continued until responding ceased on all three response keys
Why are stimulus conditions important in resurgence?
•Using the same concurrent resurgence procedure as Kincaid et al., During the RT phase, Nighbor et al. (2017a) associated one of the alternatives with a novel stimulus in both the AR and RT phases (creating an ABC resurgence test) while the stimulus associated with the other response key remained as it had been during the T and AR phases (an AAA resurgence test). •Each pigeon responded more frequently during the RT phase on the response key associated with AAA than on the concurrently available one associated with ABC resurgence, again suggesting the importance of stimulus conditions in resurgence.
