Resurgence of goal‐directed actions and habits

Fujimaki and team worked with lab rats. They wanted to know if making the old reward less tasty would stop problem behavior from coming back.

First they trained rats to press one lever for food. Some rats got only a few sessions. Others got many sessions so the press became a habit.

Next they taught all rats to press a new lever for the same food. Then they stopped giving food for either lever. They watched to see if the first lever would return.

The old lever press did return for both groups. This is called resurgence.

But when the food was later paired with sickness, the rats stopped wanting it. After this devaluation, resurgence shrank for every rat, no matter how long they had trained.

LeBlanc et al. (2003) showed resurgence stays strong even when you only thin the new reinforcement. Fujimaki adds: weaken the old reinforcer itself and the bounce-back fades.

P (2019) found people with higher anxiety show bigger resurgence. Fujimaki keeps the same lab set-up but shows the reinforcer, not the person, can be the lever you pull to cut relapse.

Piwowarczyk et al. (2020) proved kids with autism can lose interest in over-used videos. Fujimaki turns that idea into a clinical tactic: devalue the item that used to fuel problem behavior.

You can plan for resurgence by making the old payoff less powerful. Before you place a behavior on extinction, let the client satiate or pair the reinforcer with a mild aversive. Then run your DRA as usual. When the alternative reinforcement later stops, the old problem behavior should come back weaker or not at all. This gives you a cheap, fast layer of insurance against relapse.