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Six Things Practitioners Should Know About Renewal

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Abstract

Individuals who engage in problem behavior receive treatment services in various settings, such as their homes, schools, and clinics. These individuals are also likely to experience treatment provision from various practitioners, such as therapists, teachers, and caregivers. Changes in the treatment setting or intervention agent (i.e., context) can cause renewal of problem behavior. Renewal is the form of relapse that occurs when a previously eliminated behavior returns due to a change in context. Practitioners should know six things about renewal to improve clinical practice: (1) generality of renewal; (2) potential for renewal even when alternative reinforcement is available; (3) similarity between renewal testing procedures and situations that practitioners commonly encounter; (4) close relationship between renewal and the generalization of behavior change; (5) distinction between renewal and another form of relapse (i.e., resurgence); and (6) potential mitigation strategies. Practitioners should prepare for renewal during context changes when working with their clients, especially during changes to the treatment setting or intervention agent.

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Notes

  1. It is important to note that renewal is not exclusive to problem behavior, but problem behavior is the focus of the current article.

  2. Note that the relapse of behavior that results from both a change in context and the worsening of reinforcement conditions for an alternative response (e.g., omission error) is often called “super resurgence.” We direct readers to Kincaid et al. (2015) for a detailed description of this phenomenon.

  3. Winterbauer and Bouton (2010) contend that resurgence is an ABC renewal effect such that periods of reinforcement for a given response compose unique contexts such that extinction for both the target and alternative response in the test phase constitutes a novel context (i.e., Context C).

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Correspondence to Michael P. Kranak.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author declares there are no conflicts of interest.

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No human subjects were involved in the preparation of this manuscript, thus informed consent was not necessary.

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Kimball, R.T., Kranak, M.P. Six Things Practitioners Should Know About Renewal. Educ. Treat. Child. 45, 395–410 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-022-00078-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-022-00078-2

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