Abstract
The principal hypothesis of this study was that delaying the onset of extinction trials would decrease resistance to extinction and eliminate or greatly reduce the partial reinforcement extinction effect. Subjects were 137 Sprague-Dawley female rats, approximately 60 days old at the start of training. The task was standard bar-press training, with Noyes pellets as reinforcers. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four reinforcement schedules (CRF, FR:4, FR:8, FR:12), and to one of three delay groups (1-day, 7-day, 31-day). The dependent variable was number of responses to extinction (no responses in 5 continuous min.). The results indicated that a long delay between acquisition and extinction trials is associated with a decreased resistance to extinction under several schedules of reinforcement. The partial reinforcement extinction effect was greatly reduced and differences among various FR schedules eliminated at the 31-day delay period.
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Johnson, D.A., Harrell, E.H. & Pachman, J. Effects of Delay of Extinction on Resistance to Extinction. Psychol Rec 29, 111–118 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394596
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394596