5: Extinction

  • Understand extinction and spontaneous recovery of behavior
  • Recognize the pattern of extinction

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

When the characteristic consequence doesn’t follow behavior, the behavior will eventually stop. When this happens it is called extinction.

After behavior goes away following extinction, it usually comes back. When this happens, we call it spontaneous recovery.

Extinction burst

When you withhold the desirable consequence, three things usually happen:

  1. Behavior usually goes way up in frequency
  2. Behavior becomes more intense
  3. The person becomes emotional, sometimes angry, sometimes sad – most often what we call “frustrated”

Pattern of Extinction

Even though the behavior returns, you won’t get the same amount of behavior that occurred the last time. Instead, expect less of the behavior. If you continue withholding the desirable consequence a second time, the behavior will stop sooner than before; a third time, sooner before that.

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