Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8541-7299

Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Claire St. Peter

Committee Member

Kennon A. Lattal

Committee Member

Nicholas Turiano

Committee Member

Catherine Williams

Abstract

Resurgence is a type of relapse that consists of the recurrence of a previously eliminated response following worsening reinforcement conditions for an alternative response. Resurgence can occur following a history of positive or negative reinforcement; however, no previous evaluations have directly compared resurgence following these processes. In the present set of experiments, college students responded on a computer program to earn points (positive reinforcement) and to avoid losing points (negative reinforcement). Experiment 1 evaluated resurgence when both target and alternative responses were maintained by the same reinforcer class (i.e., in the positive-reinforcement component the target and alternative responses were positively reinforcement, and in the negative-reinforcement component, the target and alternative responses were negatively reinforced). Experiment 2 isolated the impact of target response reinforcement history on resurgence (i.e., the alternative response was positively reinforced across both the positive- and negative-reinforcement components). Across both experiments, resurgence (i.e., defined as an increase in responding relative to control responding) occurred for two of nine participants in the positive-reinforcement component and no participants in the negative-reinforcement component. Conclusions about differences between positive and negative reinforcement on resurgence may be limited by the arrangement of the present experiment.

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