Resurgence of derived stimulus relations: replication and extensions

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Learning and Conditioning
• Stimulus Equivalence

Background:

• Resurgence is the recovery of a previously reinforced behavior after a new behavior is extinguished.
• Previous research (Wilson & Hayes, 1996) showed derived stimulus relations can recover under punishment.
• The current study extends this by examining recovery under extinction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically replicate and extend findings on the recovery of derived stimulus relations.
• To investigate the resurgence of previously established, unreinforced stimulus relations.
• To explore the role of extinction in the recurrence of these relations.

Main Methods:

• College students participated in arbitrary-matching-to-sample training to establish four 4-member stimulus-equivalence classes (Phase 1).
• These initial relations were not associated with differential consequences.
• A second phase (Phase 2) established new equivalence classes using the same stimuli, which were then reinforced.
• Extinction procedures were applied to the Phase 2 relations, and the recurrence of Phase 1 relations was observed.

Main Results:

• The extinction of the reinforced stimulus relations from Phase 2 led to the recovery of the previously unreinforced derived relations from Phase 1.
• This demonstrates the resurgence of stimulus equivalence classes that were never directly reinforced.
• The findings confirm the systematic replication of Wilson and Hayes (1996) under extinction conditions.

Conclusions:

• Derived stimulus relations can exhibit resurgence, similar to previously reinforced responses.
• The study provides evidence for the recurrence of unreinforced relational networks when recently reinforced networks are extinguished.
• Findings contribute to a broader understanding of resurgence phenomena in behavioral psychology and stimulus equivalence.