Resurgence is the reemergence of a previously reinforced behavior when an alternative source of reinforcement is discontinued or decreased (Lattal & St. Peter Pipkin, 2009). Lattal and St. Peter Pipkin (2009) published a review in which they discussed the applied relevance of the resurgence literature, which was largely composed of investigations studying nonhuman subjects at the time. There has since been an increase in resurgence research with human participants. The purpose of the current paper is to review published investigations of resurgence with humans since Lattal and St. Peter Pipkin. The current review includes summaries of 5 human operant studies and 8 studies involving clinically relevant responding. A discussion provides implications as they relate to clinical practice and suggestions for future research. Overall, investigations related to resurgence seem to be a fruitful and socially significant focus for behavioral researchers.
Resurgence refers to the recurrence of a previously reinforced response following the worsening of reinforcement conditions (e.g., extinction) for an alternative response. Because of the implications for treatment relapse, researchers have become particularly interested in mitigating resurgence of human behavior. Some studies have employed reversal designs and varied parameters across replications (e.g., ABCADC) to compare effects of second‐phase variables. Although resurgence is generally repeatable within and between subjects, the extent to which similar levels of resurgence occur across replications is less clear. To assess the repeatability of resurgence, we conducted a secondary analysis of 62 human‐operant data sets using ABCABC reversal designs from two laboratories in the United States. We found significant reductions in the magnitude of resurgence during the second exposure to extinction relative to the first exposure when all other phase variables were held constant. These results suggest that researchers should exercise caution when using within‐subject, across‐phase replications to compare resurgence between variable manipulations with human participants.
When we evaluated variables that influence the effectiveness of the high-probability (high-p) instruction sequence, the sequence was associated with a precipitous decrease in compliance with high-p instructions for 1 participant, thereby precluding continued use of the sequence. We investigated the reasons for this decrease. Stimuli associated with the low-p instruction were systematically added and removed in the context of the high-p instructions, and results suggest that the stimuli associated with the low-p instruction influenced compliance with the high-p instructions.
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