Mitigating Reinstatement Using Progressive Ratio Schedules: A Proof of Concept

Behavioral treatments are an effective means for reducing or eliminating problem behavior. However, these treatments may lose their effectiveness when implemented over extended periods of time due to challenges that arise during community care. When challenged, relapse of problem behavior can occur in several forms (e.g., resurgence, renewal). There is a preponderance of basic, translational, and applied research explicating factors that contribute to and tactics for mitigating resurgence and renewal. However, much less is known about a third form of relapse likely to be encountered in clinical practice: reinstatement. Reinstatement is the recurrence of a previously reinforced but currently eliminated response resulting from the independent or dependent presentation of the response's reinforcer. Thus, we conducted a proof-of-concept demonstration of a novel procedure rooted in behavioral economics to mitigate reinstatement using a translational treatment model. In short, we increased the unit price of a reinforcer for a target response by exposing that response to a geometric progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement and paired that increase of unit price with a distinct stimulus. Results indicated that the novel procedure mitigated reinstatement. Areas for future research and preliminary implications for clinical practice are discussed.