Effects of reinforcement schedule on facilitation of operant extinction by chlordiazepoxide.
Extinction moves faster after fixed-interval reinforcement and can be gently speeded with medication once the behavior is solid.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Scientists gave mice food for pressing a lever on two schedules. One group got every fifth press (FR5). The other got the first press after a set time (FI).
After ten sessions, they stopped the food and gave a mild calming drug (chlordiazepoxide). They counted how fast the mice stopped pressing.
What they found
Mice trained on the time-based FI schedule quit pressing sooner than ratio-trained mice. The drug sped up extinction for both groups, but only after several sessions had already passed.
Early sessions showed no drug benefit; the calming effect needed a history of reinforcement first.
How this fits with other research
Fuhrman et al. (2016) and Landa et al. (2016) took the same idea into therapy rooms. They used multiple-schedule thinning to make extinction safer for kids. The lab result lines up: schedule history changes how fast behavior drops when reinforcement stops.
Fujimaki et al. (2025) later showed that even after extinction, the response can pop back (resurgence). C et al.'s faster FI extinction suggests that schedule choice might also tame later resurgence, a link still being tested.
Martens et al. (1989) seems to disagree. They found that a sister drug (diazepam) hurt new learning in humans. The difference is timing: C et al. gave the drug after behavior was strong, while K et al. gave it during acquisition. Benzodiazepines disrupt new learning but can ease letting go of old habits.
Why it matters
When you plan extinction, remember the client's reinforcement history. Behaviors maintained by interval-like attention (checking a phone, staff glance) may fade faster than those tied to clear response counts. If medical support is ever used, know that calming meds only help after the behavior is well learned, not at the first session.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Probe whether the problem behavior runs on an FI-like schedule; if yes, start extinction straight away and expect quicker drops.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Learning and memory are central topics in behavioral neuroscience, and inbred mice strains are widely investigated. However, operant conditioning techniques are not as extensively used in this field as they should be, given the effectiveness of the methodology of the experimental analysis of behavior. In the present study, male C57B1/6 mice, widely used as background for transgenic studies, were trained to lever press on discrete-trial fixed-ratio 5 or fixed-interval (11 s or 31 s) schedules of food reinforcement and then exposed to 15 extinction sessions following vehicle or chlordiazepoxide injections (15 mg/kg i.p., administered either prior to all extinction sessions, or prior to the final 10 extinction sessions). Extinction of operant behavior was facilitated by drug administration following training on either schedule, but this facilitation only occurred once a number of extinction sessions had taken place. The extinction process proceeded more rapidly following fixed-interval training. Resistance to extinction was equally high following training with either schedule type, and was reduced by drug administration in both cases. These phenomena were evident in individual cumulative records and in analyses of group data. Results are interpreted in terms of phenomena of operant extinction identified in Skinner's (1938) Behavior of Organisms, and by behavioral momentum theory. These procedures could be used to extend the contribution of operant conditioning to contemporary behavioral neuroscience.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2005 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2005.71-04