Resurgence when challenging alternative behavior with progressive ratios in children and pigeons
Resurgence still happens when you only thin the alternative payoff, but progressive-ratio schedules soften the blow versus full extinction.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ho et al. (2018) tested resurgence in kids and pigeons. First they taught a new task that paid off. Then they stopped paying for the old problem behavior. Finally they either cut off the new payoff cold turkey or made it harder to earn with a progressive-ratio schedule.
They watched how much the old behavior came back under each challenge.
What they found
The old behavior resurfaced in both tests. Straight extinction brought more relapse than the progressive-ratio challenge.
The pattern inside each session looked the same no matter how they cut the payoff.
How this fits with other research
Nist et al. (2021) ran a direct replication. They thinned payoff within the session using progressive-interval schedules and saw the same result: resurgence still happened, just less than with full extinction.
Shahan et al. (2020) extended the finding. They varied how steep the payoff drop was and showed bigger cuts create exponentially more resurgence. Ho’s progressive-ratio point lands on that same curve.
Greer et al. (2024) moved the lab result into clinical work. Children with destructive behavior showed minimal resurgence when thinning was gradual, matching Ho’s “less relapse with leaner ratios” message.
Why it matters
You can fade, not stop, alternative reinforcement and still expect some resurgence—just less. Start with gentle ratio climbs and watch data closely. If the old behavior pops up, hold the line; the climb itself is protection compared with going straight to zero.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Resurgence is defined as the recurrence of a previously reinforced and then extinguished target response when reducing or eliminating a more recently reinforced alternative response. In experiments with children and pigeons, we evaluated patterns of resurgence across and within sessions through decreases in reinforcer availability by challenging alternative responding with extinction and progressive-ratio schedules. In Phase 1, we reinforced only target responding. In Phase 2, we extinguished target responding while reinforcing an alternative response. Finally, Phase 3 assessed resurgence by (a) extinguishing alternative responding versus (b) introducing a progressive-ratio schedule of reinforcement for alternative responding. In both children and pigeons, resurgence of target responding occurred in both conditions but generally was greater when assessed during extinction than with progressive ratios. Importantly, within-session patterns of resurgence did not differ between testing with progressive ratios and extinction. Resurgence with progressive ratios tended to be greater with longer durations between reinforcers but we observed similar findings with only simulated reinforcers during extinction testing. Therefore, the present investigation reveals that the events contributing to instances of resurgence remain to be understood, and presents an approach from which to examine variables influencing within-session patterns of resurgence.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2018 · doi:10.1002/jeab.474