Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T17:35:24.857Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Reinstatement Effect in Human Predictive Learning: Contextual Modulation and the Impact of Extinction Reminders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2018

A. Matías Gámez Open the ORCID record for A. Matías Gámez [Opens in a new window]  and
Rodolfo Bernal-Gamboa
A. Matías Gámez*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Cádiz (Spain)
Rodolfo Bernal-Gamboa
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)
*
*A. M. Gámez is now at the Universidad de Jaén (Spain) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. M. Gámez. Departamento de Psicología de la Universidad de Jaén (Spain). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One of the most relevant phenomena both from a theoretical and clinical perspective is extinction. In particular, several researchers are interested in the response recovery effects from extinction. Reinstatement is an effect that has been proposed as a laboratory model to study relapse from extinction-based therapeutic treatments. We designed two experiments with humans to evaluate the reinstatement effect in a predictive learning task. In both experiments, participants learned a specific relationship between two cues (X and Y) and two outcomes (O1 and O2) during the first phase. Throughout extinction, both cues were presented without outcomes. After an exposure to the original outcomes, reinstatement of the first-learned information was observed during testing in both experiments. However, we found that the reinstatement effect was contextual modulated (Experiment 1; ηp2 = .78, 90% CI [.48, .86], p < .0001). Furthermore, in Experiment 2 we showed a reduction of reinstatement when an extinction reminder was used ηp2 = .45, 90% CI [.07, .65], p = .012. Theoretical implications are discussed, and some potential uses are mentioned.

Keywords

extinction-cuepredictive learningreinstatementrelapse
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 21 , 2018 , E52
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, (Grant PSI2014–52263–C2–1–P), and by Junta de Andalucía, Spain, Research Grant HUM–642. Contributions by Rodolfo Bernal-Gamboa to this research were supported by Dirección General de Asuntos Académicos de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, (PAPIIT IA302818).

References

Bernal-Gamboa, R., Gámez, A. M., & Nieto, J. (2017). Reducing spontaneous recovery and reinstatement of operant performance through extinction-cues. Behavioural Processes, 135, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2016.11.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bouton, M. E. (1993). Context, time, and memory retrieval in the interference paradigms of Pavlovian learning. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 80–99. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.80CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bouton, M. E. (1994). Conditioning, remembering, and forgetting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 20, 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.20.3.219Google Scholar
Bouton, M. E. (1997). Signals for whether versus when an event will occur. In Bouton, M. E. & Fanselow, M. S. (Eds.), Learning, motivation, and cognition: The functional behaviorism of Robert C. Bolles (pp. 385–409). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouton, M. E. (2010). The multiple forms of context in associative learning. In Mesquita, B., Feldman Barret, L., & Smith, E. (Eds.), The Mind in Context (pp. 233–258). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bouton, M. E. (2014). Why behavior change is difficult to sustain. Preventive Medicine, 68, 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.06.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bouton, M. E., & Bolles, R. C. (1979). Contextual control of the extinction of conditioned fear. Learning and Motivation, 10, 445–466. https://doi.org/10.1016/0023-9690(79)90057-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouton, M. E., & King, D. A. (1983). Contextual control of the extinction of conditioned fear: Tests for the associative value of the context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 9, 248–265. https://doi.org/10.1037//0097-7403.9.3.248Google ScholarPubMed
Bouton, M. E., & Peck, C. A. (1989). Context effects on conditioning, extinction, and reinstatement in an appetitive conditioning preparation. Animal Learning & Behavior, 17, 188–198. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207634CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouton, M. E., & Swartzentruber, D. (1991). Sources of relapse after extinction in Pavlovian and instrumental learning. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 123–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(91)90091-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouton, M. E., Winterbauer, N. E., & Vurbic, D. (2011). Context and extinction: Mechanisms of relapse in drug self-administration. In Haselgrove, M. & Hogarth, L. (Eds.), Clinical application of learning theory (pp. 103–133). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Bouton, M. E., & Woods, A. M. (2008). Extinction: behavioral mechanisms and their implications. In Byrne, J. H., Sweatt, D., Menzel, R., Eichenbaum, H., & Roediger, H., (Eds.), Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference: Vol. 1, Learning theory and behaviour (pp. 151–171). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouton, M. E., Woods, A. M., Moody, E. W., Sunsay, C., & García-Gutiérrez, A. (2006). Counteracting the context-dependence of extinction: Relapse and tests of some relapse prevention methods. In Craske, M. G., Hermans, D., & Vansteenwegen, D. (Eds.), Fear and learning: Basic science to clinical application (pp. 175–196). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Brooks, D. C., & Bouton, M. E. (1993). A retrieval cue for extinction attenuates spontaneous recovery. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 19, 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.19.1.77Google ScholarPubMed
Brooks, D. C., & Bouton, M. E. (1994). A retrieval cue for extinction attenuates response recovery (renewal) caused by a return to the conditioning context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 20, 366–379. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.20.4.366Google Scholar
Brooks, D. C., & Fava, D. A. (2017). An extinction cue reduces appetitive Pavlovian reinstatement in rats. Learning and Motivation, 58, 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2017.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, D. C., Palmatier, M. I., García, E. O., & Johnson, J. L. (1999). An extinction cue reduces spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion. Animal Learning & Behavior, 27, 77–88. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199433CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, B. N., & Brandon, T. H. (2002). Effects of extinction context and retrieval cues on alcohol cue reactivity among nonalcoholic drinkers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 390–397. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-006X.70.2.390CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craske, M. G., & Mystkowski, J. L. (2006). Exposure therapy and extinction: Clinical studies. In Craske, M. G., Hermans, D., & Vansteenwegen, D. (Eds.), Fear and learning: From basic processes to clinical implications (pp. 217–233). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dibbets, P., Havermans, R., & Arntz, A. (2008). All we need is a cue to remember: the effect of an extinction cue on renewal. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1070–1077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.05.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunsmoor, J. E., Niv, Y., Daw, N., & Phelps, E. A. (2015). Rethinking extinction. Neuron, 88, 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.028CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frohardt, R. J., Guarraci, F. A., & Bouton, M. E. (2000). The effects of neurotoxic hippocampal lesions on two effects of context after fear extinction. Behavioral Neuroscience, 114, 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1037//0735-7044.114.2.227CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gámez, A. M., & Bernal-Gamboa, R. (2018). Reinstatement of instrumental actions in humans: Possible mechanisms and their implications to prevent it. Acta Psychologica, 183, 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.12.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Gutiérrez, A., Rosas, J. M. (2003). Context change as the mechanism of reinstatement in causal learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 29, 292–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.29.4.292Google ScholarPubMed
García-Gutiérrez, A., Rosas, J. M., & Nelson, J. B. (2005). Extensive interference attenuates reinstatement in human predictive learning. The International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 18, 240–248.Google Scholar
Haaker, J., Golkar, A., Hermans, D., & Lonsdorf, T. B. (2014). A review on human reinstatement studies: An overview and methodological challenges. Learning and Memory, 21, 424–440. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.036053.114CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LaBar, K. S., & Phelps, E. A. (2005). Reinstatement of conditioned fear in humans is context dependent and impaired in amnesia. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119, 677–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.119.3.677CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
León, S. P., Abad, M. J. F., & Rosas, J. M. (2011). Context–outcome associations mediate context-switch effects in a human predictive learning task. Learning and Motivation, 42, 84–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2010.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Pelley, M. E., (2004). The role of associative history in models of associative learning: A selective review and a hybrid model. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 193–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724990344000141CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, B. L., & Miller, R. R. (2014). Associative accounts of recovery-from-extinction effects. Learning and Motivation, 46, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2014.01.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mystkowski, J. L., Craske, M. G., Echiverri, A. M., & Labus, J. S. (2006). Mental reinstatement of context and return of fear in spider-fearful individuals. BehaviourTherapy, 37, 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2005.04.001Google Scholar
Nieto, J., Uengoer, M., & Bernal-Gamboa, R. (2017). A reminder of extinction reduces relapse in an animal model of voluntary behavior. Learning & Memory, 24, 76–80. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.044495.116CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. London, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. M., & Bouton, M. E. (2001). Theories of associative learning in animals. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 111–139. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.111CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rescorla, R. A., & Heth, C. D. (1975). Reinstatement of fear to an extinguished conditioned stimulus. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1, 88–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.1.1.88Google Scholar
Schiller, D., Cain, C. K., Curley, N. G., Schwartz, J. S., Stern, S. A., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2008). Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Learning & Memory, 15, 394–402. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.909208CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vansteenwegen, D., Vervliet, B., Hermans, D., Beckers, T., Baeyens, F., & Eelen, P. (2006). Stronger renewal in human fear conditioning when tested with an acquisition retrieval cue than with an extinction retrieval cue. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1717–1725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.10.014CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vervliet, B., Craske, M. G., & Hermans, D. (2013). Fear extinction and relapse: State of art. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 215–248. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185542CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vila, N. J., & Rosas, J. M. (2001). Reinstatement of acquisition performance by the presentation of the outcome after extinction in causality judgements. Behavioural Processes, 56, 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-6357(01)00197-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westbrook, R. F., Iordanova, M., McNally, G., Richardson, R., & Harris, J. A. (2002). Reinstatement of fear to an extinguished conditioned stimulus: Two roles for context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1037//0097-7403.28.1.97Google Scholar
Willcocks, A. L., & McNally, G. P. (2014). An extinction retrieval cue attenuates renewal but not reacquisition of alcohol seeking. Behavioral Neuroscience, 128, 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035595CrossRefGoogle Scholar