Translational evaluation of on/off alternative reinforcement cycling
Turning DRA on and off can shrink resurgence more than keeping it constant.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Smith et al. (2023) asked 40 college students to play a computer game.
Pressing the space bar gave them points. Later, the points stopped.
The team then added an on/off DRA schedule. Alternative points came and went in cycles.
They compared this cycling DRA to a steady, always-on DRA.
What they found
Cycling DRA cut the old space-bar pressing more than steady DRA.
When reinforcement paused, resurgence stayed low.
In short, turning DRA on and off kept problem responding from bouncing back.
How this fits with other research
Lloyd et al. (1969) first paired timeout with DRA to stop severe aggression. Their DRA stayed on. Smith shows a break in DRA can help, not hurt.
Dudley et al. (2019) thinned a token board for food stealing. They kept reinforcement flowing. Smith’s pause-and-return schedule gives a new tool that may slow resurgence better.
Rogers-Warren et al. (1976) added a clock to lower extra button pushes. Like Smith, they tweaked the schedule to make behavior smarter, not just quieter.
Why it matters
You can test on/off DRA cycling in your next case. Run DRA for ten minutes, pause for two, then return. Track if the old behavior resurges less than with steady DRA. One small schedule twist may save you from full extinction bursts.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cycling between the availability and unavailability of reinforcement for alternative responding has successfully reduced resurgence in basic laboratory evaluations, but this approach represents a marked departure from current standards of care when treating problem behavior, warranting careful translation before its use clinically. Therefore, with extinction arranged for target responding across groups in Phase 2, we evaluated the effects of cycling between the availability and unavailability of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) using a computer-based task with adult humans recruited through Amazon MTurk. Two control groups experienced constant DRA in Phase 2, with one group experiencing a dense DRA schedule and another group experiencing a lean DRA schedule. The cycling DRA group tended to show greater reductions in target responding and improved discrimination in Phase 2 and less target responding across Phases 2 and 3 than the lean DRA and dense DRA groups. These preliminary findings suggest that on/off DRA cycling procedures may produce more desirable treatment outcomes than constant DRA without producing negative side effects; however, further research is needed to confirm these possibilities.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2023 · doi:10.1002/jeab.879