Early extinction effects following intermittent reinforcement: Little evidence of extinction bursts. Issue 1 (8th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lattal, Kennon A.; Kuroda, Toshikazu; Cook, Jemma E.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior. Volume 114:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 47
• Page End: 59
• Publication Date: 2020-07-08
• Subjects: extinction -- extinction burst -- intermittent reinforcement -- pigeons -- rats; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.724
• DOI: 10.1002/jeab.616
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-5002

Abstract

Abstract : The occurrence of extinction bursts—transient increases in response rate in excess of those observed in baseline during the period immediately following discontinuation of reinforcement of a response—was examined. In Experiment 1, key pecking of pigeons was reinforced according to a multiple schedule in which a variable‐ratio schedule alternated with an interval schedule in which the reinforcers were yoked to the preceding variable‐ratio component. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats were screened such that the lever‐press response rates of different rats maintained by variable‐interval schedules were either relatively high or relatively low. Following these baseline conditions, in Experiments 1 and 2 responding was extinguished by eliminating the food reinforcer and in Experiment 3 by removing the response–reinforcer dependency. Responses immediately following extinction implementation were examined. Response increases relative to baseline during the first 20 min of a 324.75‐min extinction session (Experiment 1) or during the first 30‐min extinction session (Experiments 2 and 3) were rare and unsystematic. The results (a) reinforce earlier meta‐analyses concluding that extinction bursts may be a less ubiquitous early effect of extinction than has been suggested and (b) invite further experimentation to establish their generality as a function of preceding reinforcement conditions.