A nonsequential approach to the study of operant renewal: a reverse translation

ABA renewal is a model of treatment relapse that describes the recurrence of severe problem behavior when behavior learned in one context (e.g., home; A) and treated in a separate context (e.g., clinic; B) reemerges when the original context is reintroduced (A). However, in the typical environment and during the usual course of treatment for severe problem behavior, the target behavior is exposed to the baseline context periodically (e.g., the child returns home after several hours in a clinic setting). Due to the difficulty of studying what effect this may have on treatment relapse during ABA renewal in a strictly applied investigation, we developed a human-laboratory translation to study renewal in a nonsequential manner. Using undergraduate students as subjects, we directly compared levels of recurrence using the standard ABA renewal procedure and a modified nonsequential ACA procedure, one modeled from the typical course of treatment for problem behavior. Both methods produced renewal at comparable levels, and patterns during nonsequential ACA renewal were similar to those during sequential ABA renewal. We discuss the implications of these findings in the framework of treatment for severe problem behavior.