Extinction

Gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behavior decreasing or

disappearance.
Extinction in psychology refers to the fading and disappearance of behavior that was previously
learned by association with another events (that means a conditioned response is weakened and
the target behavior eventually stops and becomes extinct).
Gradual disappearance of conditioned response CR. The term ‘extinction’ was first used by Ivan
Pavlov in reference to his observation that ‘the conditioned response to a cue that predicted food
delivery decreased and eventually disappeared when food no longer followed the cue.
In operant conditioning, extinction refers to the ‘gradual weakening and disappearance of a
response tendency’ because the response is ‘no longer followed by a reinforces’.
Extinction in reinforcement theory?
Extinction can also reduce desired behavior by not offering positive reinforcement when the
desired behavior occurs.
Example: If a manager stops praising an employee for completing tasks quickly, the employee
might stop this behavior.
Extinction in ABA Therapy?
In applied behavior analysis (ABA), extinction refers to the fading away and eventual
elimination of undesirable behaviors. If a problem behavior no longer occurs, it’s said to be
extinct, and the therapeutic process of accomplishing this is referred to as extinction.
The philosophy of ABA recognizes positive reinforcement as a way to encourage positive
behavior…. Negative responses to problem behaviors do not effectively cause those behaviors to
stop. Instead, it’s simple inaction, or refraining from reinforcing an undesirable behavior, while
at the same time using positive reinforcement to promote desirable behavior that causes problem
behaviors to naturally die out.
Reinforcement in ABA means any consequence that’s immediately delivered following a
behavior, which then increases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated.
Extinction isn’t achieved through the typical discipline system—i.e., the client displays an
inappropriate or undesirable behavior and the teacher reacts to that behavior in an attempt to stop
the behavior. Instead, using the concept of extinction, only those behaviors that are deemed
positive are reinforced, with all negative behaviors simply ignored.
What Does Extinction Mean?
While withholding positive reinforcement by ignoring the behavior is an effective strategy,
extinction may also mean denying the client access to specific items or activities (e.g., the client
cannot leave the classroom for lunch until he stands in line with his peers) or removing the child
from the environment.
For example, if a student with ASD continuously pinched her classmate during circle time, the
ABA practitioner would remove the child from the environment each time this occurred to
ensure the safety of her classmates, but without saying anything to the child or identifying the
problem behavior. However, each time the child sat beside her classmate without pinching, the
teacher would provide her with praise or other positive reinforcement, such as a token or sticker.
It is important to not just reduce/eliminate an undesirable behavior but to also encourage a
replacement behavior. Therefore, removing the child from the environment wouldn’t be enough;
providing praise when the child sat with her hands in her lap and did not pinch her classmate is
equally important.
What Does Ignoring the Behavior Mean?
In general, during extinction, the undesirable behavior is met with no eye contact, no physical
contact, and no verbal reinforcement or reaction.
Consider this: a child disrupts the class, and the class responds by laughing. The response by the
class serves as a reinforcement of the disruptive behavior and increases the likelihood that the
child will disrupt the class again in the future. Now, if the child disrupts the class, but the teacher
and the other students choose to simply ignore the behavior, the reinforcement of the behavior is
eliminated. Without receiving any reinforcement of his behavior, the child will be less likely to
continue to disrupt the class in the future.
While the undesirable behaviors in ABA are ignored, the positive behaviors that take the place of
the negative behaviors are encouraged through positive reinforcement. Depending on the
individual and the environment, the ABA practitioner may acknowledge the positive behavior by
rewarding the child with activities, tokens, or praise.
When and How Should Extinction be Used?
Extinction can be used for a number of behaviors, including:
 Sleeping/eating problems
 Dangerous/aggressive behaviors or those that can cause self-injury or injury to others
 Functional communication
 Inappropriate social behaviors
Applying extinction takes patience and consistency by the ABA practitioner because it’s
common for the undesirable behavior to increase in frequency, duration, or intensity before
fading away. For example, the child who disrupts the class may become louder or more
disruptive in an attempt to elicit a response when the class ignores the behavior. This
exaggerated attempt at getting a response is referred to as an extinction burst.
Before applying extinction, the ABA practitioner should:
  Identify the behavior and patterns related to it (frequency, duration, intensity, location,
etc., including when it does and does not occur)
 Create an extinction plan and share it with all other practitioners working with the child
to ensure consistency and support; in a classroom environment, this may include
encouraging other students to ignore a specific behavior
 Create an extinction burst safety plan (should behavior get progressively worse before it
gets better)
Extinction in Autism
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are known to have restricted or repetitive
behaviors that can cause problems when trying to function in day-to-day activities. Extinction is
used as an intervention to help with problem behaviors. Some problem behaviors may include
but are not limited to, self-injurious behaviors, aggression, tantrums, problems with sleep, and
making choices. Ignore certain self-injurious behaviors can lead to the extinction of said
behaviors in children with ASD. Escape Extinction (EE) is commonly used in instances when
having to make choices causes problem behavior. An example could be having to choose
between mint or strawberry flavored toothpaste when brushing your teeth. Those would be the
only two options available. When implementing EE, the interventionist will use physical and
verbal prompting to help the subject make a choice.
Extinction in Across development
There is a strong body of evidence to suggest that extinction alters across development. That is,
learning extinction may differ during infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. During
infancy and childhood, learning extinction is especially persistent, which some have interpreted
as erasure of the original CS-US association, but this remains contentious. In contrast, during
adolescence and adulthood extinction is less persistent, which is interpreted as new learning of a
CS-no US association that exists in tandem and opposition to the original CS-US memory.