Extinction-induced variability in human behavior
Citation
Export citationKinloch, J.M., Foster, T.M. & McEwan, J.S.A. (2009). Extinction-induced variability in human behavior. The Psychological Record, 59(3), 347-370.
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/4573
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.
Date
2009Type
Publisher
Psychological Record, Southern Illinois University
Rights
This article has been published in the journal: The Psychological Record. Used with permission.