Contextual control of extinguished conditioned performance in humans

Animal research has shown that extinguished conditioned performance is modulated by the environmental context in which extinction treatment has occurred. When the conditioned stimulus is presented outside the extinction context, conditioned responding is renewed. In two experiments, whether a renewal effect can also be found in humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, a renewal effect was observed, although the effect was small and far from complete. In Experiment 2, a more substantial renewal effect was observed. The extent to which this effect occurred depended on the degree to which context was manipulated. In a third experiment, the exact nature of the observed renewal effect was examined. Results indicated that, as opposed to animals, the extinction context does not modulate extinguished conditioned responding in humans.