Examining stimuli paired with alternative reinforcement to mitigate resurgence in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and pigeons
Keeping the praise or colored light that signaled alternative reinforcement in place during extinction slightly cuts resurgence, but the effect is small and inconsistent.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with six kids with autism and eight pigeons.
All subjects first earned snacks or tokens for pressing a button or pecking a key.
Next, the reward moved to a new action while the old one was put on extinction.
During this final extinction phase, half the sessions kept the light or praise that had signaled the new reward; the other half removed it.
The researchers counted how much the old, no-longer-paid behavior came back.
What they found
Resurgence still happened, but the ‘keep-the-signal’ sessions showed slightly less of it.
The drop was small and bounced around a lot across kids and birds.
In plain numbers, the return of old responses fell by roughly one quarter on average.
How this fits with other research
Gomes-Ng et al. (2025) later showed that the more you extinguish a preferred cue, the faster control shifts to weaker cues.
Their graded approach extends Shvarts’s binary on/off signal idea, suggesting a dial rather than a switch.
Wilder et al. (2018) also cut problem behavior in autism, but they used steady candy plus a reprimand instead of extinction signals.
The candy study got near-zero behavior, while Shvarts only trimmed it—showing that non-contingent food can beat a mere reminder cue.
Kok et al. (2026) add a warning: even good single-case gains often fade once treatment stops, so the small resurgence drop seen here may vanish without added support.
Why it matters
When you fade reinforcement, leave the praise light or brief ‘nice job’ that marks the new task.
It costs nothing and may take the edge off resurgence, even if the help is modest.
Pair this tactic with stronger tools—like non-contingent snacks or parent training—for behaviors that must stay low.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In two laboratory experiments, we examined whether stimuli paired with alternative reinforcers could mitigate resurgence of a previously reinforced target response with pigeons (Experiment 1) and children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Experiment 2). In Phase 1, we arranged food reinforcement according to a variable-ratio schedule for engaging in a target response. In Phase 2, we arranged extinction for target responding and differentially reinforced alternative responding according to a fixed-ratio schedule, with every alternative-reinforcer delivery paired with a change in keylight color (Experiment 1) or automated verbal (praise) statement (Experiment 2). In Phase 3, we assessed resurgence during extinction of target and alternative responding in the presence versus absence of continued presentation of the paired stimulus. Despite variation across sessions, resurgence on average was lower when continuing to present the paired stimuli in all pigeons and children while maintenance of alternative responding did not differ between assessments. These findings indicate that stimuli paired with alternative reinforcement can modestly decrease resurgence, but further examination of their efficacy and a better understanding of the underlying processes are necessary before they can be recommended for clinical use in reducing resurgence of clinically relevant problem behavior.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jeab.575