What term describes the gradual disappearance of a previously reinforced behaviour when reinforcement ends?

• A. Extinction.
• B. Spontaneous recovery.
• C. Generalisation.
• D. Discrimination.

Answer: (A)

This describes extinction in operant conditioning. When reinforcement stops after a behavior has been reinforced, there’s no longer a consequence to strengthen that behavior, so its occurrence gradually decreases and may eventually fade away. You might also see an extinction burst at first—a brief uptick in responding—before the decline continues. After extinction, a behavior can sometimes reappear later in a phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery, but that doesn’t negate the slower fading that extinction describes. The other terms refer to different ideas: generalisation is responding to similar cues, and discrimination is learning to respond only to the specific cue that signals reinforcement.