Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar;119(2):373-391.
doi: 10.1002/jeab.835. Epub 2023 Feb 10.

Response effort and resurgence

Kimberly M Walter  1   2 , Chata A Dickson  1   2
Affiliations

Response effort and resurgence

Kimberly M Walter et al. J Exp Anal Behav. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

This study provides an initial translational examination of response effort and resurgence. Eleven typically developing adults and five adolescents with autism served as participants across two experiments. Participants received points for touching moving stimuli on a computer screen. The resurgence evaluation consisted of three phases: establishment wherein R1 was reinforced, elimination wherein R1 was placed on extinction while R2 was reinforced, and extinction wherein R1 and R2 no longer resulted in reinforcement. Rate of R1 during extinction was compared across three conditions: intermediate, easy, and difficult. Disparity in effort was created by manipulations of the size and speed of objects that moved about on a computer screen. In Experiment 2, control stimuli were added to the experimental arrangement. Across the two experiments, the magnitude of resurgence was greater when R1 was easy. In Experiment 2, both R1 and control responding were greater in the extinction phase than in the elimination phase in all conditions with all participants. The present study supports the hypothesis that response effort affects resurgence and that less effortful responses are likely to recur with greater magnitude under conditions that produce resurgence than are their more effortful counterparts.

Keywords: control response; human operant; response effort; resurgence.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Alling, K., & Poling, A. (1995). The effects of differing response-force requirements on fixed-ration responding of rats. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 63(3), 331-346. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1995.63-331
    1. Bailey, J., McComas, J. J., Benavides, C., & Lovascz, C. (2002). Functional assessment in a residential setting: Identifying an effective communicative replacement response for aggressive behavior. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 14(4), 353-369. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020382819146
    1. Bolívar, H. A., Cox, D. J., Barlow, M. A., & Dallery, J. (2017). Evaluating resurgence procedures in a human operant laboratory. Behavioural Processes, 140, 150-160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.05.004
    1. Bruzek, J. L., Thompson, R. H., & Peters, L. C. (2009). Resurgence of infant caregiving responses. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 92(3), 327-343. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2009-92-327
    1. Buckley, S. D., & Newchok, D. K. (2005). Differential impact of response effort within a response chain on use of mands in a student with autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 26(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2004.07.004

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources