The Repetition of the Resurgence Procedure and the Reappearance of the Target Response

Abstract

Resurgence refers to the recurrence of a previously extinguished response when a more recently reinforced response is also placed on extinction. Although the conditions that lead to resurgence can occur repeatedly during the organism’s life, studies on the impact of repeated exposures to the procedure on the magnitude of resurgence are limited and commonly do not have repetition as their primary focus. Typically, studies that included repeated exposures to the resurgence procedure suggest that resurgence can persist with repetition. However, the results are inconsistent regarding changes in magnitude, with some studies showing increases, others decreases, and some indicating no change at all across re-exposures to the procedure. Given these ambiguous findings, the goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of repeated exposure to the resurgence procedure on the magnitude of resurgence of a previously extinguished target response. Six experimentally naïve male Wistar rats were exposed to the resurgence procedure, which included reinforcement for the target response (Phase 1), extinction of the target response combined with reinforcement for the alternative response (Phase 2), and extinction of both responses during the resurgence test (Phase 3). Following Phase 3, all animals were re-exposed to all three phases two more times. Resurgence occurred repeatedly for all rats in all exposures to the procedure, corroborating the finding that resurgence is a replicable phenomenon within subjects. Additionally, in the present experiment, the magnitude of the target response increased with repeated exposures to the procedure. The reinstatement of the reinforcement conditions for the target response, with the reintroduction of Phase 1, may have contributed to the effects observed. Therefore, the presence of a recent reinforcement history for the target response could be a significant factor in explaining the increase in the magnitude of resurgence observed across exposures in this experiment.