An animal model of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior

Abstract

Basic and translational research provides the opportunity to evaluate variables that may be difficult to examine thoroughly with clinical populations. For example, practitioners report that problem behavior treated with differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) is often prone to treatment relapse. We sought to assess resurgence in the context of an animal model of a clinical DRA treatment with pigeons. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that an animal model of a clinical DRA preparation produced a resurgence of a previously extinguished target response when extinguishing a more recently trained alternative response. In Experiment 2, we found that repeatedly reversing reinforcement and extinction contingencies between target and alternative responding tended to increase the likelihood of resurgence of target responding relative to no contingency reversals. The resurgence of target responding in both experiments is discussed in the context of developing novel animal models closely approximating applied conditions as a platform to assess manipulations relevant to designing better behavioral treatments for problem behavior.