Extinction
Discontinuing the reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior, so the behavior no longer produces its maintaining consequence and decreases over time.
Extinction is both a principle and a procedure. As a principle, a behavior that stops producing the reinforcer that has been maintaining it occurs less often over time. As a procedure, the team arranges for that reinforcer to be withheld every time the behavior occurs. Nothing is added and nothing the client already has is taken away; the behavior simply stops working.
Extinction must match the function of the behavior. For attention-maintained behavior, the behavior no longer produces attention (attention extinction). For escape-maintained behavior, it no longer ends the demand (escape extinction). For tangible-maintained behavior, it no longer produces the item. For automatically reinforced behavior, the sensory consequence is blocked or masked where possible (sensory extinction). Ignoring an escape-maintained behavior is not extinction, because ignoring does not withhold the reinforcer that matters.
Extinction is usually combined with reinforcement of a replacement behavior, which makes it faster and reduces side effects. Common effects of extinction include an extinction burst, response variation, emotional responding and later spontaneous recovery or resurgence. Because of these, extinction is not a good choice when a burst would be dangerous or when the team cannot withhold the reinforcer consistently. Intermittent reinforcement during extinction can make the behavior more persistent.
The supervisor designs the extinction procedure; the RBT carries it out every time, keeps everyone safe, records data, and reports bursts or new behaviors.
Example and non-example
| Example | A client's whining is maintained by an adult's attention. The plan calls for attention extinction, so the RBT continues the activity without looking at or talking to the client during whining, and reinforces requests made in a calm voice. |
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| Non-example | An RBT removes a client's favorite toy for 5 minutes each time the client whines. Taking away a reinforcer the client had is negative punishment (response cost or time-out), not extinction. |
Don't confuse it with
| Negative punishment | Negative punishment removes a reinforcer the person already has, while extinction stops delivering the reinforcer that the behavior used to produce. |
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| Planned ignoring | Planned ignoring withholds attention; it works as extinction only when the behavior is maintained by attention. |
Test yourself
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Question 1A mastered skill is practiced every day, but correct responses never produce any reinforcement, programmed or natural. What is most likely over time?
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B: The skill weakens through extinction. Behavior that no longer produces reinforcement decreases over time. That is extinction, and it is why maintenance plans keep some reinforcement for mastered skills.
- A: Practice without reinforcement does not strengthen operant behavior.
- C: Lack of reinforcement makes generalization less likely, not more.
- D: Without reinforcement, the skill is likely to weaken rather than stay the same.
Task C.9 · 40-hour curriculum section A
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Question 2Which two processes make up the differential reinforcement used in shaping?
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A: Reinforcing the current approximation; extinction of earlier ones. In shaping, responses that meet the current criterion are reinforced, while earlier approximations that used to be reinforced are now placed on extinction. This shifts responding toward the terminal behavior.
- B: Shaping does not use punishment for earlier approximations; they simply stop being reinforced.
- C: Prompting and prompt fading are a different procedure.
- D: Noncontingent reinforcement is not contingent on any response, so it cannot select closer approximations.
Task C.10 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 3When an earlier approximation is no longer reinforced, a client's responses often become more variable. Why is this variability useful in shaping?
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D: It produces new forms, some closer to the target, that can be reinforced. Extinction of the earlier approximation tends to increase variation in responding. Among those new variations are responses closer to the target, which the RBT can reinforce under the new criterion.
- A: More variable responding does not mean the terminal behavior has been reached.
- B: Variability is an expected effect of extinction of the old approximation, not a sign the reinforcer has lost value.
- C: Variability does not by itself call for physical prompts.
Task C.10 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task D.4 Extinction in content area D, Behavior Reduction, which is 14 of the 75 scored questions.