Negative Punishment during Alternative Reinforcement Does Not Reduce Subsequent Resurgence

Authors

Alexander Houchins, West Virginia UniversityFollow
Catherine L. Williams, West Virginia UniversityFollow
Claire C. St. Peter, West Virginia UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dataset

Publication Date

2020

College/Unit

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program/Center

Psychology

Abstract

Resurgence of previously suppressed behavior can occur when differential reinforcement is discontinued. Recent research has investigated strategies to mitigate resurgence, such as punishing the target response during alternative reinforcement. Loss of reinforcers contingent on the target response (response cost) does not appear to attenuate resurgence, but these effects had not been replicated with other negative-punishment procedures, such as timeout. This study investigated effects of timeout on subsequent resurgence when adults responded to earn points during a computer task. Timeout did not affect subsequent resurgence. These findings, in combination with previous research, suggest that negative punishment may not reduce the likelihood of subsequent resugence.

Digital Commons Citation

Houchins, Alexander; Williams, Catherine L.; and St. Peter, Claire C., "Negative Punishment during Alternative Reinforcement Does Not Reduce Subsequent Resurgence" (2020). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2784.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2784