Extinction (psychology)

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Extinction in psychology refers to the gradual decrease and possible elimination of a learned behavior. This behavioral phenomenon can be observed in both operantly conditioned and classically conditioned behavior. When operant behavior that has been previously reinforced no longer produces reinforcing consequences, the behavior gradually returns to operant levels (to the frequency of the behavior previous to learning, which may or may not be zero). In classical conditioning, when a conditioned stimulus is presented alone, so that it no longer predicts the coming of the unconditioned stimulus, conditioned responding gradually stops. For example, after Pavlov's dog was conditioned to salivate at the sound of a metronome, it eventually stopped salivating to the metronome after the metronome had been sounded repeatedly but no food came. In operant conditioning, when a conditioned response is no longer reinforced, the rate of conditioned responding decreases. An example of this would be...

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