Super-resurgence: ABA Renewal Increases Resurgence

Previously extinguished operant responding recurs under both resurgence and renewal procedures, but the effects of combining these procedures on recurrence has not been studied. Because renewal and resurgence are known to independently produce response recurrence, we examined whether greater resurgence would occur if the resurgence procedure was combined with an ABA renewal procedure, relative to a resurgence procedure without contextual changes. Three pigeons were exposed to a concurrent resurgence procedure in which key colors served as contextual stimuli. In the Training phase, reinforcement for pecking two keys was scheduled on concurrent variable-interval (VI) 120-s VI 120-s schedules, each correlated with different key colors. In the Alternative Reinforcement phase, reinforcement occurred when neither key was pecked for 20-s (a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior [DRO] 20-s schedule). During this phase, one of the key colors was changed (ABA key), while the other key color remained as in the Training phase (AAA key). In the third phase, reinforcement was not provided and the color of the ABA key was changed back to the color in effect during the Training phase while the same color remained in effect on the other key. Greater resurgence occurred on the ABA renewal key with each pigeon, demonstrating that a superimposed ABA renewal procedure increases resurgence.