Extinction

Synonyms

Behavior elimination; Behavior that became extinct; Extinguished response

Definition

Extinction is a functional process through which a behavioral response is loosened and ultimately becomes extinguished due to the absence of conditioned and/or operant reinforcement.

Introduction

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was the first who theoretically and operationally designated and described the behavioral process that is widely known as extinction through his work on conditioned reflexes (Ramnero and Torneke 2011), specifically, in a well-known experimental procedure that I. P. Pavlov had conducted, where dogs were classically conditioned to secrete saliva and digestive fluid in response to the sound of a bell which had consistently proceeded their usual food (i.e., meat powder). When the dogs acquired the classically conditioned association between a meat powder (i.e., unconditioned stimulus) and the sound of a bell (i.e., conditioned stimulus), the sound of the bell was consistently...