Lecture 6- Extinction & Stimulus Control

Question 1

What is extinction?

Answer 1

The non-reinforcement of a previously reinforced response, the result is a decrease in the strength of that response.

Question 2

Fill in the blank/complete the sentence:

• Extinction is BLANK simply a
  process of BLANK the conditioning.
• Extinction involves BLANK
  something new about the BLANK.
• Extinction involves learning
  that the operant response…

Answer 2

• not, unlearning
• learning, CS
• no longer predicts reward

Question 3

What are the 2 steps to extinguish a behavior?

Answer 3

1. Identifying the reinforcer that is maintaining the behavior
2. Then take away the reinforcer

Question 4

What are 6 side effects of extinction?

Answer 4

1. Extinction burst
2. Increase in variability
3. Emotional behavior/frustration
4. Aggression
5. Resurgence
6. Depression

Question 5

What is an extinction burst?

Answer 5

A temporary increase in the intensity and frequency of responding

Question 6

What is resurgence?

Answer 6

The reappearance of older behaviors that once been effective in obtaining reinforcement

Question 7

Complete the sentence:

• A response that is very persistent is said to
  have…
• A response that disappears quickly is said to
  have…

Answer 7

• high resistance to extinction
• low resistance to extinction

Question 8

What are the 6 factors that can affect resistance to extinction?

Answer 8

1. Schedule of reinforcement (intermittent schedule extinguishes more slowly than continuous)
2. History of reinforcement
3. Previous experience with extinction (greater the prior exposure to extinction, more quickly the behavior extinguishes)
4. Degree of deprivation
5. Magnitude of the reinforcer
6. Distinctive signal for extinction

Question 9

Behavior maintained on an intermittent schedule will
extinguish more slowly than behavior maintained on a
continuous schedule.

What concept is this?

Answer 9

Partial reinforcement effect

Question 10

The presence of a discriminative stimulus reliably
affects the probability of the behavior.

What concept is this?

Answer 10

Stimulus control

Question 11

The tendency for an operant response to be emitted
in the presence of a stimulus that is similar to the
original S^D.

What concept is this?

Answer 11

Stimulus generalization

The more similar the stimulus, the stronger the response

Question 12

Generalization gradient:

A flat gradient indicates…

A steep gradient indicates…

Answer 12

• strong generalization
• weak generalization

Question 13

A discriminative stimulus for BLANK (S^Δ) is a stimulus that signals the BLANK of reinforcement.

What type of training is this?

Fill in the blanks.

Answer 13

extinction, absence

Discriminative training

Question 14

A change in the rate of reinforcement on one
component of a multiple schedule produces an
opposite change in the rate of response on another
component.

What concept is this?

Answer 14

Behavioral Contrast

Question 15

The rate of response varies inversely with an upcoming
(“anticipated”) change in the rate of reinforcement.

What concept is this?

Answer 15

Anticipatory contrast

Question 16

Start with an easy goal and gradually increase difficulty.

Answer 16

Targeting

Question 17

The process of gradually altering the intensity of a
stimulus is known as…

Answer 17

Fading

Question 18

A procedure that minimizes the number of errors
and reduces many of the adverse effects
associated with discrimination training.

It involves two aspects:

1. The S^Δ
   is introduced early in training, soon after the
   animal has learned to respond appropriately to the SD;
   and
2. The S^Δ
   is presented in weak form to begin with and
   then gradually strengthened.

What concept is this?

Answer 18

Errorless discrimination training