Extinction in Psychology

Extinction, in psychology, refers to the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that eventually results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing. In other words, the conditioned behavior stops.

Causes of Extinction and When It Occurs

• Classical Conditioning: When a conditioned stimulus is presented alone without an unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will eventually cease. For example, Pavlov's dog experiment showed that when the bell (conditioned stimulus) was presented without food (unconditioned stimulus), the salivation response (conditioned response) eventually became extinct.

• Operant Conditioning: Extinction occurs when a response is no longer reinforced following a discriminative stimulus. B.F. Skinner observed this phenomenon when a rat continued to press a lever for food after the food dispenser jammed. The behavior eventually dwindled and disappeared.

Examples of Extinction

• Lab Rat Experiment: When a researcher stops delivering food pellets after a rat presses a key, the rat will initially persist in pressing the key but eventually stop due to the absence of reinforcement.

• Conditioned Taste Aversions: A taste aversion developed after eating ice cream and becoming sick can be overcome through gradual exposure to small tastes of ice cream without getting sick, leading to the extinction of the aversion.

Extinction Doesn't Mean It's Gone Forever

• Spontaneous Recovery: Allowing time to elapse after a response has been extinguished can result in the sudden reappearance of the response.

• Partial Reinforcement: Skinner found that reinforcing a behavior on a partial schedule (e.g., only after a certain number of responses) makes it more resistant to extinction.

Factors Influencing Extinction

• Strength of Conditioning: The longer and stronger the conditioning, the more resistant a behavior may be to extinction.

• Habituation: Repeated exposure to a conditioned stimulus may lead to habituation, making it less likely to elicit a response and eventually leading to extinction.

• Personality Factors: Individual factors such as anxiety can influence the rate of extinction, with more anxious individuals showing slower extinction of fear responses.