Extinction-induced variability in human behavior

Kinloch, Jennifer M.; Foster, T. Mary; Mcewan, James S.A.

Abstract

Participants earned points by pressing a computer space bar (Experiment 1) or forming rectangles on the screen with the mouse (Experiment 2) under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules, followed by extinction. Variability in interresponse time (the contingent dimension) increased during extinction, as for Morgan and Lee (1996); Variability in diagonal length (the noncontingent dimension, Experiment 2) did not. In Experiment 3, points were contingent on rectangle size. Rectangle size and interresponse-time (the noncontingent dimension) variability increased in extinction. There was greater variability in the contingent dimension during extinction for participants with the more varied history of reinforcement in Experiment 2 but not in Experiment 3. Overall, variability in the contingent dimension increased in extinction, but the degree of increase was affected by reinforcement history.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jul 31, 2009
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2024
• Journal: Psychological Record
• Print ISSN: 0033-2933
• Electronic ISSN: 2163-3452
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 347-370
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03395669
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11846718