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 Co-Chair

Kennon A. Lattal

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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