Resistance to extinction: contingency termination and generalization decrement

Nevin, John A.; McLean, Anthony P.; Grace, Randolph C.

doi:10.3758/bf03192826

Cited by 74 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This prediction stems from behavioral momentum theory’s suggestion that resistance to disruption is governed by the Pavlovian discriminative-stimulus– reinforcer relation, which has been supported by research with species ranging from fish to humans (e.g., Ahearn, Clark, Gardenier, Chung, & Dube, 2003; Cohen, 1996; Igaki& Sakagami, 2004; Nevin, Tota, Torquato, & Shull, 1990; Shahan &Burke, 2004). Nevin, McLean, and Grace (2001) have shown that the c and d parameters are independent, vary as expected with experimental manipulations, and combine additively, as suggested by the model. Equation 1 also accounts for the partial-reinforcement extinction effect, because at very high rates of reinforcement, the stimulus change associated with removal of the reinforcers from the situation (i.e., generalization decrement— dr ) serves as a larger disruptor than does removal of reinforcers arranged on a schedule of partial reinforcement (Nevin & Grace, 2005).…”

supporting

confidence: 60%

Behavioral momentum and resurgence: Effects of time in extinction and repeated resurgence tests

Sweeney

Shahan

2013

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Resurgence is an increase in a previously extinguished operant response that occurs if an alternative reinforcement introduced during extinction is removed. Shahan and Sweeney (2011) developed a quantitative model of resurgence based on behavioral momentum theory that captures existing data well and predicts that resurgence should decrease as time in extinction and exposure to the alternative reinforcement increases. Two experiments tested this prediction. The data from Experiment 1 suggested that without a return to baseline, resurgence decreases with increased exposure to alternative reinforcement and to extinction of the target response. Experiment 2 tested the predictions of the model across two conditions, one with constant alternative reinforcement for five sessions, and the other with alternative reinforcement removed three times. In both conditions, the alternative reinforcement was removed for the final test session. Experiment 2 again demonstrated a decrease in relapse across repeated resurgence tests. Furthermore, comparably little resurgence was observed at the same time point in extinction in the final test, despite dissimilar previous exposures to alternative reinforcement removal. The quantitative model provided a good description of the observed data in both experiments. More broadly, these data suggest that increased exposure to extinction may be a successful strategy to reduce resurgence. The relationship between these data and existing tests of the effect of time in extinction on resurgence is discussed.

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confidence: 60%

Behavioral momentum and resurgence: Effects of time in extinction and repeated resurgence tests

Sweeney

Shahan

2013

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“…Because of this interval-reset property, rats that form a more enduring memory for shorter criterion durations (e.g., 18 sec) will continue to press the lever around that original criterion duration and be less efficient in acquiring longer criterion durations (e.g., 36 sec) in DRL schedules. This idea is similar to the "resistance to extinction" hypothesis proposed to account for variations in the strength of responding engendered by different schedules of reinforcement (e.g., Nevin et al 2001). Compared with the memory endurance and temporal exploration for sequentially trained criterion times, parallel observations have been made using the Morris water maze, in which rats are inferred to have better memory for the spatial location of a hidden platform if they spend more time during extinction/probe trials exploring the location that once contained the platform (e.g., Schulz et al 2004).…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 67%

Prenatal choline supplementation alters the timing, emotion, and memory performance (TEMP) of adult male and female rats as indexed by differential reinforcement of low-rate schedule behavior

Cheng¹,

MacDonald²,

Williams³

et al. 2008

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Choline availability in the maternal diet has a lasting effect on brain and behavior of the offspring. To further delineate the impact of early nutritional status, we examined effects of prenatal-choline supplementation on timing, emotion, and memory performance of adult male and female rats. Rats that were given sufficient choline (CON: 1.1 g/kg) or supplemental choline (SUP: 5.0 g/kg) during embryonic days (ED) 12-17 were trained with a differential reinforcement of low-rate (DRL) schedule that was gradually transitioned through 5-, 10-, 18-, 36-, and 72-sec criterion times. We observed that SUP-females emitted more reinforced responses than CON-females, which were more efficient than both groups of males. In addition, SUP-males and SUP-females exhibited a reduction in burst responding (response latencies <2 sec) compared with both groups of CON rats. Furthermore, despite a reduced level of burst responding, the SUP-males made more nonreinforced responses prior to the DRL criterion as a result of maintaining the previous DRL criterion following transition to a new criterion. In summary, long-lasting effects of prenatal-choline supplementation were exhibited by reduced frustrative DRL responding in conjunction with the persistence of temporal memory in SUP-males and enhanced temporal exploration and response efficiency in SUP-females.Choline is an essential nutrient for the regulation of cell signaling, methyl metabolism, and acetylcholine synthesis in both the infant and adult (Zeisel and Niculescu 2006). It has been found that when choline is administered at levels higher than normal to pregnant rats during embryonic days (ED) 12-17, the adult offspring showed enhanced spatial and temporal memory (Meck and Williams 2003). Specifically, rats given this prenatal-choline supplementation made fewer errors when tested on a radial-arm maze (Meck et al. , 1989Meck and Williams 1999) and are able to chunk more information in spatial memory that helps them identify multiple-reward baiting patterns (Dallal and Meck 1990;Meck and Williams 1997b). Similarly, when challenged with tasks that require the ability to remember durations in the seconds-to-minutes range, prenatal choline-supplemented rats produced more precise timing functions and are better able to time multiple durations simultaneously compared with control rats (Meck and Williams 1997a,c;Cheng et al. 2006b). The prenatal availability of choline also modifies the development of the cholinergic system (e.g., Meck et al. 1989;Williams et al. 1998;Cermak et al. 1999;Montoya et al. 2000;Mellott et al. 2004) and alters indices of hippocampal plasticity (e.g., Pyapali et al. 1998;Glenn et al. 2007). Together, these findings indicate that prenatal-choline supplementation can induce profound changes in brain function that lead to increased memory capacity and precision in adult offspring. In the present study, the potential benefits of prenatal-choline supplementation were further investigated by using differential reinforcement of low-rate (DRL) schedules to study th...

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“…where k9, b, x, r s , and r a are defined as above; f represents the additional disruptive effect of prefeeding; v represents the additional effect of ICI food; q represents the additional effect of the retention interval; and c and d represent the additional effects of discontinuing the contingency and changing the reinforcer rate from r s to zero during extinction (see Nevin, McLean, & Grace, 2001;Nevin & Grace, 2005). We used a nonlinear curve-fitting program (Microsoft Excel Solver) to estimate values of the parameters, with r s and r a based on programmed reinforcer rates.…”

Section: Application: Multiple Schedules Of Reinforcement For Correctmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Theory of Attending and Reinforcement in Conditional Discriminations

Nevin¹,

Davison²,

Shahan³

2005

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

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A model of conditional discrimination performance (Davison & Nevin, 1999) is combined with the notion that unmeasured attending to the sample and comparison stimuli, in the steady state and during disruption, depends on reinforcement in the same way as predicted for overt free-operant responding by behavioral momentum theory (Nevin & Grace, 2000). The rate of observing behavior, a measurable accompaniment of attending, is well described by an equation for steady-state responding derived from momentum theory, and the resistance to change of observing conforms to predictions of momentum theory, supporting a key assumption of the model. When probabilities of attending are less than 1.0, the model accounts for some aspects of conditional-discrimination performance that posed problems for the Davison-Nevin model: (a) the effects of differential reinforcement on the allocation of responses to the comparison stimuli and on accuracy in several matching-to-sample and signal-detection tasks where the differences between the stimuli or responses were varied across conditions, (b) the effects of overall reinforcer rate on the asymptotic level and resistance to change of both response rate and accuracy of matching to sample in multiple schedules, and (c) the effects of fixed-ratio reinforcement on accuracy. Some tests and extensions of the model are suggested, and the role of unmeasured events in behavior theory is considered.Key words: attending, behavioral momentum, conditional discrimination, matching to sample, signal detection, observing behavior _______________________________________________________________________________In order for stimuli to control behavior, organisms must attend to them. Dinsmoor (1985) suggested that effective stimulus control depends on contact with the relevant stimuli via overt observing behavior, and that for a complete understanding ''. . . we are obliged to consider analogous [to observing] processes . . . commonly known as attention. The processes involved in attention are not as readily accessible to observation as the more peripheral adjustments, but it is my hope and my working hypothesis that they obey similar principles.'' (p. 365). Although attention is usually construed as a cognitive process, we view attending as unmeasured (possibly covert) operant behavior that accompanies measurable observing. Attending, we suggest, is selected and strengthened by the reinforcing consequences of overt discriminated operant behavior that would be less frequently reinforced in the absence of attending. Following Dinsmoor, we assume that the unmeasured behavior of attending to discriminative stimuli is related to the rates of reinforcement correlated with those stimuli in the same way as measured free-operant response rate.In this paper, we develop a model of attending that parallels a version of behavioral momentum theory for free-operant responding and incorporate it into a general account of discriminated operant behavior (Davison & Nevin, 1999). We begin by reviewing behavioral momentum theo...

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Resistance to extinction: contingency termination and generalization decrement

Cited by 74 publications

References 22 publications

Behavioral momentum and resurgence: Effects of time in extinction and repeated resurgence tests

Behavioral momentum and resurgence: Effects of time in extinction and repeated resurgence tests

Prenatal choline supplementation alters the timing, emotion, and memory performance (TEMP) of adult male and female rats as indexed by differential reinforcement of low-rate schedule behavior

A Theory of Attending and Reinforcement in Conditional Discriminations

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