An Analysis of Extinction-Cue Features in the Reduction of Operant Behavior Relapse

The present free operant conditioning experiments with rats examined the impact of manipulating different traits of an extinction-cue on ABA renewal. All rats were trained to perform an operant response (R1) for food in context A, and a different operant response (R2) in context B. Responses were then extinguished, R1 in context B and R2 in context A. In Experiment 1, for half of the rats, both responses were extinguished in the presence of an intermittent light. For the other half, a continuous light was utilized during extinction of R1 and R2. Finally, all rats were tested in both contexts (R1 was tested in the presence of the cue in both contexts, whereas R2 was tested in the presence of the cue only in the extinction context). Returning the rats to the original conditioning context renewed the initial operant behavior. However, we found that both types of extinction-cues (intermittent and continuous) attenuated ABA renewal equally. In addition, both responses underwent extinction in Experiment 2. For half of the subjects, R1 and R2 were extinguished in the presence of a dim light, whereas the other half received a bright light as an extinction-cue for both responses. Once again, we found during testing (R1 was tested in the presence of the cue in both contexts whereas R2 was tested in the presence of the cue only in the extinction context), that both types of extinction-cues reduced ABA renewal in a similar manner. The present results suggest that in some conditions, the features of the extinction cues may not affect their renewal-attenuating properties.