An experimental demonstration of AAB renewal in children with autism spectrum disorder
New room cues can bring back an extinguished behavior, so probe across settings before you call treatment a win.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three kids with autism pulled a lever for toys. The team then stopped the reward. This is called extinction.
Next the room changed. New lights and sounds appeared. The team watched if lever-pulls came back. This is AAB renewal.
What they found
Two of the three kids started pulling the lever again when the room looked new. One kid did not.
Even though the reward was still gone, the new room cues were enough to bring the old behavior back.
How this fits with other research
Gotham et al. (2014) saw the same bounce-back with mands in autism. It is not just lever pulls.
Greer et al. (2024) show that big drops in reinforcement also cause resurgence. Cohenour adds that simple room changes do it too.
Falligant et al. (2022) say renewal happens in most outpatient clinics. The lab and the clinic now match.
Why it matters
You may think a behavior is gone after extinction, but new lights, staff, or rooms can revive it. Plan for this by teaching the child to ask in every setting and by thinning rewards slowly. Probe in novel rooms before discharge.
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Join Free →After extinction, test the behavior in a new room with different lights or toys and record any spikes.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Operant renewal is a return of extinguished behavior due to changes in contextual stimuli that control the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a response. Well-established in classical conditioning and operant research, renewal presents itself in three forms-ABA, ABC, and AAB-and poses threats to treatment maintenance where extinction procedures are utilized. As AAB renewal may be less likely to occur than ABA or ABC renewal, the current study sought to determine if AAB renewal would occur with three participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder who were taught a simple lever pull response. Results showed that lever pulls increased for two of three participants when we introduced novel stimuli (i.e., a light and a buzzer) to alter the contextual environment after extinction. These findings suggest that AAB renewal may account for some instances of response recovery after extinction and that the procedure of this study may be beneficial to the further study of renewal and the variables that affect its occurrence within a translational model.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2018 · doi:10.1002/jeab.443