Revaluation of overselected stimuli: Emergence of control by underselected stimuli depends on degree of overselectivity
Extinction plus reward widens attention only for highly overselective learners—probe first or risk making it worse.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gomes‐Ng et al. (2023) asked 24 college students to pick the one picture that matched a sample. Each sample was paired with a nine-part picture. Some students zeroed in on just one piece—classic overselectivity.
Next the team took away points when the student picked the overused piece. They gave points for picking a part the student had ignored. Then everyone did the match game again.
What they found
Taking points away cut how often students picked the overused piece. That part worked for everyone.
But the ignored pieces only gained control for the students who had been highly overselective. Students who had mildly overselective styles actually picked the ignored pieces less after the switch.
How this fits with other research
McAleer et al. (2011) showed that training with busy nine-part pictures teaches overselectivity in the first place. Gomes‐Ng starts where Phil stops—after the habit is learned—and tests how to undo it.
Farmer-Dougan et al. (1999) used prompts to force kids with ID to look at every part. Their method cut overselectivity right away, but the skill vanished when prompts stopped. Gomes‐Ng shows that extinction plus reward can shift attention without prompts, at least in neurotypical adults.
Russo et al. (2019) paired extinction with reward to help kids eat new foods. The same extinction-plus-reward pair is now being recycled for a totally different problem—stimulus overselectivity—showing the tactic travels across populations and goals.
Why it matters
Before you try to broaden a client’s stimulus control, run a quick overselectivity probe. If the learner locks onto only one cue, extinction plus reinforcement of a new cue can open the lens. If the learner already shows mild overselectivity, the same plan can back-fire and narrow the lens even more. Check the degree first, then intervene.
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Join Free →Run a five-trial probe: present a nine-element compound and record which elements the client touches; if they pick only one element on every trial, add brief extinction for that element and immediate reward for touching a different element.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Stimulus overselectivity describes strong control by one stimulus element at the expense of other equally relevant elements. Research suggests that control by underselected stimuli emerges following extinction of the overselected stimulus ("revaluation") and the emergence is larger when overselectivity is greater. We compared such revaluation effects with a control compound or condition in two experiments. Human participants chose between compound S+ and S- stimuli. Then, to assess control by compound-stimulus elements, participants chose between individual elements in a testing phase without feedback. The S+ element chosen most often (the overselected element) underwent revaluation, during which choice of that element was extinguished and choice of a novel element reinforced. Thereafter, participants completed a retesting phase. Revaluation reduced choice of the overselected element. Choice of the underselected element decreased for participants with low overselectivity but increased for participants with high overselectivity. This was not the case for a control compound that did not undergo revaluation (Experiments 1 and 2) or in a control condition in which the overselected element continued to be reinforced during revaluation (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that overselectivity levels may modulate revaluation effects, and they also highlight the importance of the contingency change in postrevaluation changes in stimulus control.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2023 · doi:10.1002/jeab.850