ArticleJournal of the experimental analysis of behavior2025
The extinction burst: Effects of alternative reinforcement magnitude.
Article in Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The extinction burst: Effects of alternative reinforcement rate.Behavioural processes · 2026Article
- The Effects of Quality of Reinforcement on the Resurgence of Responding.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Discontinuing reinforcement for an operant behavior sometimes produces a transient increase in responding (i.e., an extinction burst). A matching-law-based quantitative model posits that the extinction burst results from the elimination of competition from reinforcement-related behavior with the onset of extinction. Consistent with this suggestion, retrospective case reviews in applied settings suggest reduced prevalence of the extinction burst when alternative reinforcement is available, but there has been no relevant prospective research. The present experiment used rats and methods approximating conditions in applied settings to examine the effects of alternative reinforcement magnitude on the extinction burst. Lever pressing in baseline produced a one-pellet reinforcer on a variable-interval 1.5-s schedule before a within-session transition to extinction that included no alternative reinforcement, one pellet, or six pellets of alternative reinforcement. A robust extinction burst was obtained when no alternative reinforcement was available, but the prevalence and magnitude of the extinction burst was reduced with an alternative reinforcer available, more so with the larger alternative reinforcer. The data were well described by the model. Similar prospective studies directly examining related effects in basic and applied settings could strengthen the empirical basis of current practice and further evaluate the utility of the present theoretical approach.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.