Lesson 9 Extinction

Dr. Javier Bandrés

 Pavlovian conditioning:
Extinction

 Extinction of a conditioned response :

when the conditioned stimulus does not
elicit the conditioned response because
the unconditioned stimulus no longer
follows the conditioned stimulus

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 How Rapidly Does a Conditioned
Response Extinguish?
 There are several factors that influence
the rate of extinction:

-The Strength of the CR

-The Influence of Predictiveness
-Duration of CS Exposure
 The Strength of the CR
Hull considered the extinction process to be a mirror
image of the acquisition

Thus, the stronger the CS-CR bond, the more

difficult to extinguish the CR

Recent research shows that there is not a perfect

correspondence
The Influence of Predictiveness

 The more predictive the CS, the more

rapid the extinction

– Thus, there is an inverse relationship

– The effect is not the result of number of CS-
UCS pairings, it is the predictiveness of the
CS
 Duration of CS Exposure
 As the duration of CS-alone exposure
increases, the strength of the CR weakens

– This effect is determined by total duration of

CS alone exposure, not number of extinction
trials

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 Extinction does not erase
Acquisition

 Spontaneous Recovery
 Renewal
 Reinstatement
 Spontaneous Recovery

 If a test period is introduced after

extinction training, responding is observed
to recover
 Renewal
 Recovery of acquisition performance when
the contextual cues that were present
during extinction are changed

- Return to the context of acquisition

- Shift to a neutral context
 Reinstatement

 Recovery of conditioned behavior

produced by exposures to the
unconditioned stimulus

 Reinstatement is context specific

How to make extinction more effective

 Number and spacing of extinction trials

 Reducing spontaneous recovery
 Reducing renewal
 Compounding extinction stimuli
 Number and spacing of extinction trials

 Larger numbers of extinction trials

produce a more profound decrease in
responding

 Massed extinction trials (close together in

time) produce a more raapid decrement
Reducing spontaneous recovery

 Spontaneous recovery is substatially

reduced by repeating periods of rest and
testing
 In fear conditioning extinction is more
permanent if extinction is conducted right
after acquisition
 In appetitive conditioning is just the
opposite
 Reducing Renewal

 Renewal can be attenuated by conducting

extinction in several different contexts
Compounding extinction stimuli

 Presenting two S undergoing extinction at

the same time can deepen the extinction
of those S
 EXTINCTION OF AN OPERANT RESPONSE:
REWARD

 Extinction of an operant or instrumental

response

 Continued failure of behavior to produce

reinforcement causes the strength of the
response to diminish until it is no longer
performed
 Effects of Extinction

 Target response decreases

 Response variability increases

 Emotional effects: frustration

 Resistance to Extinction
 Some factors in the acquisition process
appear to contribute to the resistance to
extinction of instrumental or operant
responding
 Influence of Reward Magnitude

 The influence of reward magnitude on

resistance to extinction is dependent upon
the amount of acquisition training
 A large reward during acquisition
produces more resistance to extinction
 However, with extended acquisition, a
small reward produces more resistance to
extinction
 The Importance of Consistency of
Reward
 Extinctionis slower following partial rather
than continuous reinforcement

 Partialreinforcement effect (PRE): the

greater resistance to extinction of an
instrumental or operant response
following intermittent rather than
continuous reinforcement during
acquisition
The Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect (PREE)
 Overtraining Extinction Effect

 The more training with continous

reinforcement, the more rapid the
extinction
 The extinction of the Escape Response

 An escape response is eliminated when an

aversive event continues despite the
escape response
 The escape response during acquisition
affects resistance to extinction

– The greater the acquisition training, the

slower the extinction of the escape behavior