Psychology Commons^™

A Comparison Of Resistance To Extinction Following Dynamic And Static Schedules Of Reinforcement, Andrew R. Craig

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavioral momentum theory states that the Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer relation governs resistance to extinction. Thus, higher baseline reinforcer rates should produce more persistent behavior than lower baseline reinforcer rates. Though this positive relation generally is observed when behavior is maintained and subsequently disrupted in multiple schedules, the opposite relation is observed when single schedules are used. An alternative framework of extinction performance based on Bayesian change detection may be applied intuitively to describe resistance to extinction in single schedules of reinforcement. This approach asserts that detection of changes in reinforcer rates during extinction should be easier following training with rich reinforcer …