Further evaluation of treatment duration on the resurgence of destructive behavior

Greer and colleagues asked a simple question. If we run extinction longer, will destructive behavior come back less later?

They treated the same participants several times. Each time they made the extinction phase longer. Then they stopped all reinforcement and watched for resurgence.

Longer extinction did not shrink resurgence. Short or long, the behavior bounced back the same.

The team got the same null result in every round. Duration alone is not a shield against relapse.

Greer et al. (2020) saw the same thing three years earlier. The new study is a clean replication with tighter controls.

Smith et al. (2022) looks like a contradiction. They found that longer extinction phases did cut resurgence in college students. The difference is the setting. Smith ran a lab game with money; Greer worked in clinics with real problem behavior.

Fisher et al. (2018) offers a brighter path. They showed that building behavioral momentum—reinforcing the new response many times before thinning—does lower relapse. Duration alone fails, but strategic reinforcement works.

You cannot just wait out extinction and hope relapse will be smaller. Plan for resurgence no matter how many sessions you run. Instead of stretching extinction, add procedures that work: momentum-style dense reinforcement of the replacement response, caregiver training, and relapse drills.