1. Define extinction following Pavlovian conditioning?

    Extinction is an active process caused by the omission of an expected US. Extinction features a decline in a conditioned behavior over time that was previously learned. Extinction occurs through repeated presentations of the CS without the US.

  2. What is spontaneous recovery?

    If a rest period without anything specific happening occurs and there is responding again after the rest period has commenced.

  3. Explain renewal? How does the Bouton and King experiment demonstrate renewal. What does renewal indicate about the learning that takes place during extinction? What are the implications of this phenomena for designing effective treatment programs based on extinction?

    Renewal is a recovery of conditioned responding when contextual cues that were present during extinction are changed. The Bouton and King experiment demonstrates renewal in that when the lab rats were taken out of their original context, extinction was present, but once they were put back into their original context, spontaneous recovery occurred. This is an example of renewal in that there was a change in context (moving the lab rats from context A to context B then back to context A) which led to a recovery of responding. Renewal indicates that extinction is another kind of learning, and that it does not erase the responding present in excitatory conditioning. The implications of this phenomena in designing effective treatment programs based on extinction is that we cannot assume that just because extinction of conditioned responses occurs in one context it will travel over to the next. Extinction is more difficult to generalize in other contexts. It’s important to be mindful that widespread effects of a problem may continue to be present outside of the therapist’s office, even if inside the office they seemed to subside.

  4. Why is there more contextual control over extinction than over initial conditioning?

    Extinction learning is more context-specific than initial conditioning, which is more generalized. Extinction behaviors latch onto the context they are learned in, and this learning is more difficult to translate into other contexts.

  5. How can spontaneous recovery be considered an example of renewal?

    Spontaneous recovery is an example of renewal in that it provides evidence of a response re-occurring even if it subsided previously, such as an in alternative location. If spontaneous recovery is witnessed, this serves as evidence of the renewal effect because it is an example of responding when there has been a change in context. “Since spontaneous recovery is when an extinguished response occurs after time has passed following the extinction, it can be viewed as the renewal effect that results when the CS is tested outside of its temporal context.”

  6. What is reinstatement? What does it tell us about the learning that takes place in extinction?

    Reinstatement is the recovery/return of conditioned behavior that occurs when individuals encounter the US again. It tells us that the learning that takes place during extinction is context-specific.

  7. How can you think of reinstatement as another example of renewal?

    Reinstatement is another example of renewal because it indicates that with a change in context, the effects of extinction are not the same as in another context, and the response will be present againr