Experience with dynamic reinforcement rates decreases resistance to extinction
Unstable reinforcement histories speed up extinction, so expect faster drops after variable schedules.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Craig and team worked with pigeons in a lab. The birds pecked a key for food.
Some pigeons got the same food rate every day. Others got rates that changed every few sessions.
After that, all birds entered extinction. No food came for pecking. The team counted how long each bird kept pecking.
What they found
Birds that lived through shifting food rates quit pecking sooner. Their behavior dropped fast.
Birds with steady rates kept pecking longer. Stable histories built stronger persistence.
How this fits with other research
Lecavalier et al. (2006) showed that richer or bigger reinforcers make behavior harder to stop. Craig et al. (2016) add that just changing the rate, not its size, also matters.
Capio et al. (2013) found the opposite pattern with children with autism. Continuous reinforcement made problem behavior harder to extinguish. Craig’s pigeons showed less persistence after unstable rates. The clash tells us species and schedule details count.
Cox et al. (2015) showed several stable sessions are needed to build momentum. Craig’s frequent rate swaps may have prevented that buildup.
Why it matters
If you plan to fade reinforcement, avoid big last-minute changes in rate. A choppy history can make the behavior disappear faster, but it can also create emotional bursts. For smooth fading, thin the schedule gradually and keep it steady just before you stop. Watch for quicker drops after variable reinforcement and adjust your criteria.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Track the last week of schedule changes before you start extinction; hold the rate steady for three sessions to avoid rapid drops.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The ability of organisms to detect reinforcer-rate changes in choice preparations is positively related to two factors: the magnitude of the change in rate and the frequency with which rates change. Gallistel (2012) suggested similar rate-detection processes are responsible for decreases in responding during operant extinction. Although effects of magnitude of change in reinforcer rate on resistance to extinction are well known (e.g., the partial-reinforcement-extinction effect), effects of frequency of changes in rate prior to extinction are unknown. Thus, the present experiments examined whether frequency of changes in baseline reinforcer rates impacts resistance to extinction. Pigeons pecked keys for variable-interval food under conditions where reinforcer rates were stable and where they changed within and between sessions. Overall reinforcer rates between conditions were controlled. In Experiment 1, resistance to extinction was lower following exposure to dynamic reinforcement schedules than to static schedules. Experiment 2 showed that resistance to presession feeding, a disruptor that should not involve change-detection processes, was unaffected by baseline-schedule dynamics. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that change detection contributes to extinction. We discuss implications of change-detection processes for extinction of simple and discriminated operant behavior and relate these processes to the behavioral-momentum based approach to understanding extinction.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2016 · doi:10.1002/jeab.196