Renewal after the extinction of free operant behavior |
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Authors: | Bouton Mark E Todd Travis P Vurbic Drina Winterbauer Neil E |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA |
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Abstract: | Four experiments were performed to explore the role of context in operant extinction. In all experiments, leverpressing in
rats was first reinforced with food pellets on a variable interval 30-s schedule, then extinguished, and finally tested in
the same and a different physical context. The experiments demonstrated a clear ABA renewal effect, a recovery of extinguished
responding when conditioning, extinction, and testing occurred in contexts A, B, and A, respectively. They also demonstrated
ABC renewal (where conditioning extinction and testing occurred in contexts A, B, and C) and, for the first time in operant
conditioning, AAB renewal (where conditioning, extinction, and testing occurred in contexts A, A, and B). The latter two phenomena
indicate that tests outside the extinction context are sufficient to cause a recovery of extinguished operant behavior and,
thus, that operant extinction, like Pavlovian extinction, is relatively specific to the context in which it is learned. AAB
renewal was not weakened by tripling the amount of extinction training. ABA renewal was stronger than AAB, but not merely
because of context A’s direct association with the reinforcer. |
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Keywords: | |
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