The reoccurrence of voluntary behavior in humans is reduced by retrieval cues from extinction

Changes in the temporal as well as the physical context produces the reappearance of extinguished behaviors. Furthermore, combining both kinds of contextual stimuli often causes greater levels of recovery. The current experiment explored the impact of extinction reminders on spontaneous recovery, renewal, and a combination of both effects using an instrumental learning task with humans. All participants learned to shoot at enemies in a videogame. Then, throughout extinction, the instrumental response was eliminated. We found a return of the extinguished behavior by introducing a retention interval of 48 h, by changing the physical background and by testing participants in a spatiotemporal context different from the extinction context. However, we also found that the presentation of a stimulus directly associated with extinction attenuates all three forms of operant reoccurrence. These results are consistent with the perspective that emphasizes that context plays a key role in response-recovery phenomena. Moreover, our findings may be promissory for therapeutic strategies involving relapse treatment.