ABA and ABC Renewal during Ongoing Omission Training

• Published in: The Psychological record Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 675 - 695
• Main Authors: Finch, Kacey R., Williams, Catherine L., Kestner, Kathryn M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Differential reinforcement; Experiments; Methods; Operant conditioning; Original Article; Psychological research; Psychology; Reinforcement; Reinforcement (Psychology); Relapse; Renewal; Software; United States; DRO; omission training; human operant; renewal; relapse
• ISSN: 0033-2933; 2163-3452
• DOI: 10.1007/s40732-022-00524-y

Renewal is one form of behavioral relapse in which a previously reduced response reemerges following a contextual change. Renewal is prevalent during clinical interventions and can result in countertherapeutic increases in undesired behavior. We evaluated renewal during ongoing omission training using a remote human-operant arrangement. Participants responded by clicking on a rectangle, and the context during each of the three phases was represented by the background color of the computer program. During the baseline phase, points were delivered contingent on target responding in Context A. During the omission-training phase, points were delivered according to a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) schedule in Context B. During the renewal-test phase, the DRO schedule remained in place, and the context either returned to Context A (Experiment 1 ; ABA renewal) or to a novel Context C (Experiment 2 ; ABC renewal). Renewal occurred for 24 of 25 participants across both experiments. To evaluate the repeatability of renewal, some participants in each experiment completed the three-phase renewal sequence twice. ABA renewal was replicated across iterations for three of five participants, and ABC renewal was replicated for one of four participants. The results of this translational investigation suggest that practitioners employing omission training should be aware of potential renewal following context changes, even when the DRO contingency remains unchanged. Future research should evaluate techniques for mitigating renewal during omission training.