Understanding resurgence and other emergent activity with the laws of allocation, induction, and covariance
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Resurgence is defined as an increase in a previously extinguished target response (B1) resulting from the worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative response (B2). Worsening includes extinction or reductions in rate, amount, and immediacy of delivery of food or some other phylogenetically important event (PIE). In the first part of the article, we apply the laws of allocation, induction, and covariance to understand not only resurgence of operant activity previously covarying with the PIE (B1) but also a constellation of ontogenetic and phylogenetic activities both related to the PIE (B0) and unrelated to the PIE (BN). In the second part, we discuss how induction might be incorporated into and provide alternative processes within an existing matching‐based framework, resurgence as choice (RaC). We begin to identify how this range of activities could depend on changes in the relative competitive weight (V) of all available activities (B1, B2, B0, BN) in addition to only those receiving explicit training (B1, B2). Future empirical and theoretical research is needed within this framework to provide a more complete understanding of resurgence and behavior more generally.
DOI: 10.1002/jeab.4212
Authors: Christopher A. Podlesnik, William M. Baum
Institutions: University of Florida, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402899819