extinction

extinction

The process of withholding reinforcement that maintains the rate of response

• Removing reinforcement, and the behavior goes away

Extinction

Removing food when the lever is pressed, the animal will stop engaging in pressing the lever over time

Operant extinction (EXT)

The procedure

• Withholding the reinforcer for a previously reinforced response

The effect

• Responses gradually decrease

Extinction Effects

Behavioral Effects of Extinction

• extinction burst

• operant variability

• force of response

• emotional response

Extinction burst

A rapid burst of responses that occur when extinction is first implemented; tendency of operant behavior to increase in frequency 

• effects are usually temporary

• Often accompanied by increase in frequency, intensity, or duration of the response

Example of extinction burst

ressing the elevator button multiple times because you want the elevator to arrive faster

Operant variability

The topography of response may vary slightly or drastically

• Variability increases the chances of reinstatement of reinforcement or contacting other sources of reinforcement

• Ex: shaking the vending machine, punching the machine…could go wrong…

Force of response

Reinforcement can be made contingent (likely but could not happen) on force

• Extinction can produce a more forceful response

Emotional response

A variety of emotional responses occur under conditions of extinction

• Ex: rats biting the response lever, birds flapping their wings; humans swearing

• Emotional behavior may include aggression

Δ (triangle)

DELTA

Resistance to Extinction

The amount of responding that occurs once the extinction procedure begins

• The amount of time that passes before the response rate drops below a specific value (usually near zero)

• The perseverance of operant behavior when it is placed on extinction 

  • HOW MUCH RESPONDING IS CONTINUING ONCE EXTINCTION HAPPENS

Factors Affecting Resistance to EXT (extinction)

Ability to discriminate change in procedure

• High-magnitude reinforcers given on a continuous schedule of reinforcement produce less resistance to extinction

• Signaling extinction will DECREASE resistance

Example: Your teacher would give you a dollar every time you raised your hand in class. However all of a sudden the teacher stops giving you a dollar when you raise your hand, so you stop raising your hand

Factors influencing the effectiveness of extinction

Schedule of reinforcement

• Intermittent (partial) vs continuous reinforcement

Intermittent

you get a reinforcer for EVERY FEW responses

• Intermittent schedules are more resistant to extinction, making extinction take longer

Continuous

you get a reinforcer for EVERY SINGLE response

Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect (PREE)

PREE – intermittent (partial) schedules of reinforcement have greater resistance to EXT than continuous schedules of reinforcement 

• The top graph is intermittent

• The bottom graph is continuous

This is best explained by discrimination.

• When continuous schedules go on EXT, it is easy to detect.

• When intermittent schedules go on EXT, it may take a while to detect the difference

Spontaneous recovery

The rate of response resumes level similar to when reinforced although reinforcement has not been provided for a period of time

• The effect decreases over time

• this may be due to the presentation of stimuli associated with reinforcement

• Response spontaneously comes back after the response has been on extinction.

When an event is removed following operant behavior and the operant class is…

STRENGTHENED, the contingency is called NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT 

extinction involves

withholding