Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, Vol 25(3), Aug 2025, 94-105; doi:10.1037/bar0000309
Resurgence is a common form of treatment relapse. Therefore, determining manipulations to mitigate resurgence of a target response and/or promote persistence of an alternative response continue to be a critical area of research. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend previous research that has suggested resurgence may be mitigated following differential reinforcement of an alternative response that is lower effort compared to a higher-effort target response. Using a group design, we compared two, three-phase resurgence conditions: an effort-manipulation group and an effort-control group, in which target, alternative, and in-active control responses involved participants placing a ping-pong ball in one of the three baskets. In the effort-manipulation group, target and inactive-control response baskets were placed a farther distance away from participants’ starting location compared to the alternative response basket that was within arm’s reach. In the effort-control group, participants traveled the farther distance to complete all responses. Resurgence of the target response occurred across both groups during the extinction challenge, but the difference in magnitude of resurgence between groups was not statistically significant. Differences between groups for the persistence of alternative responding, however, was statistically significant such that the lower-effort response in the effort-manipulation group persisted to a greater degree than the alternative response in the effort-control group. This study provides further evidence that response effort is an important response dimension to be considered in applied research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)