Reinstatement of negatively reinforced behavior with rats

Reinstatement refers to the recurrence of extinguished behavior following response-dependent or -independent exposure to stimuli such as reinforcers, stressors, or reinforcer-correlated cues. Despite broad research on this form of behavioral relapse, little is known about reinstatement of behavior previously maintained by negative reinforcement. The present study explored reinstatement of negatively reinforced behavior with rats under a timeout-from-avoidance procedure. First, responses to the timeout lever could produce 2-min timeouts from a free-operant avoidance schedule wherein shocks could be postponed by pressing an avoidance lever. Then, timeout responding was extinguished by withholding timeouts while the avoidance response continued to postpone shocks. Finally, response-independent timeouts were delivered as the avoidance schedule remained unchanged. The results showed that extinguished timeout responding was reinstated in most subjects following the delivery of response-independent timeouts. These findings expand the generality of the reinstatement effect reported with positive reinforcement to another functional class of behavior and provide an animal model to extend research on behavioral relapse.