Multiple control responses and resurgence of human behavior

Abstract

Behavior that was previously extinguished may reoccur, or resurge, when an alternative response contacts extinction or when reinforcement conditions worsen. Researchers have studied resurgence of human responding in laboratory settings with procedures commonly used with nonhumans. In contrast to nonhuman responding, researchers have failed to observe resurgence of the target response at rates that differ from an inactive control response with verbally competent humans. But this may have been the result of using a single control response. The current study examined this possibility by randomly allocating participants (N = 20) to a condition with either two or four control responses. When the alternative response contacted extinction, having more control responses did not reduce overall responding to control options, and aggregated responding to control options were similar to target response rates. Interestingly, most participants responded more to one control response over all other control responses when the alternative response contacted extinction. This study provides additional support for previous research that finds consistent differences between human and nonhuman responding during resurgence procedures. Two potential reasons for variability in human responding during resurgence tests include less time in experimental sessions and the influence of verbal behavior.