Auburn University Ringgold standard institution-Psychological Sciences, Auburn, Alabama, USA.
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International Ringgold standard institution, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, Japan.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2023 May;119(3):501-512. doi: 10.1002/jeab.843. Epub 2023 Mar 15.
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 (RaC ), could account for those effects. Consistent with predictions of RaC , 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 RaC to nonhuman data. Overall, our findings suggest that RaC 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.
复燃是指由于替代反应的强化条件发生变化，导致先前被强化然后被熄灭的目标反应增加，包括替代反应的强化率或强化量减少。对非人类动物的研究表明，替代反应强化率和强化量的减少都会产生复燃，但本研究首次考察了替代反应强化量的下降对人类复燃的影响。此外，这也是首次评估定量框架，即情境中的复燃作为选择（RaC），是否可以解释这些影响。与 RaC 的预测一致，当替代反应的得分增益减少时，目标按钮按压会出现复燃，而减少幅度越大，复燃程度越高。然而，该模型在低强度强化和消退的测试中始终存在低估和高估复燃的情况。模型对替代反应预测的系统偏差也很明显，并且与之前 RaC 对非人类数据的拟合一致。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，RaC 可能是理解人类复燃过程的有用的定量理论框架，但需要进一步的理论发展来解释消退和强化量下降对复燃的明显不同影响。
