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Extinction-induced variability in human behavior

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.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Kinloch, J.M., Foster, T.M. & McEwan, J.S.A. (2009). Extinction-induced variability in human behavior. The Psychological Record, 59(3), 347-370.
Date
2009
Publisher
Psychological Record, Southern Illinois University
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This article has been published in the journal: The Psychological Record. Used with permission.