Response variation
During extinction, an increase in the variety of the person's responses, such as new forms or different intensities of behavior, as the old response stops producing reinforcement.
When a behavior no longer produces reinforcement, people often try something different. The variation can involve form (new topographies), force, duration or location. A client whose crying no longer gets attention may start calling out, tapping the adult's arm or throwing items. Response variation is a common secondary effect of extinction, often seen alongside an extinction burst.
Response variation has two sides. It can produce new problem behaviors, some more serious than the original, which is why extinction is usually combined with teaching and reinforcing a replacement behavior. It can also produce new appropriate behaviors, which is useful: shaping relies on this variability, since it gives the teacher closer approximations to reinforce.
An RBT should treat new behaviors carefully. If a new behavior is appropriate and matches what the plan wants to reinforce, such as a replacement communication response, the RBT reinforces it as directed. If a new behavior is problematic or dangerous, the RBT keeps everyone safe, does not reinforce it, records it with an objective description, and reports it promptly so the supervisor can decide whether the plan needs to change.
New behaviors that appear during extinction are not evidence that the client has a new function; they are often different ways of trying to get the same reinforcer.
Example and non-example
| Example | Hand-raising is now required to get the teacher's attention, so calling out no longer works. A student first calls out louder, then starts waving a book, tapping the desk and saying "Excuse me." |
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| Non-example | A behavior that had been extinguished reappears after a spring break. That is spontaneous recovery, not variation in responding during extinction. |
Don't confuse it with
| Extinction burst | An extinction burst is an increase in the same behavior, while response variation involves different forms or features of responding. |
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| Response generalization | Response generalization is the emergence of untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to a trained target, while response variation is a change in responding produced by extinction. |
Test yourself
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Question 1When 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
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Question 2While a client's attention-maintained yelling is on extinction, the client tries several behaviors the RBT has never seen them use: waving, tapping the table and humming loudly. What is this called?
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B: Response variation. During extinction, people often try new forms of behavior. This response variation is a common secondary effect of extinction.
- A: Spontaneous recovery is the return of the original behavior after time away.
- C: Resurgence is the return of previously reinforced behavior, not new forms.
- D: Behavioral contrast is a change in another setting, not new forms in this one.
Task D.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 3Why can response variation during extinction be useful to a supervisor's plan?
Show answer
B: New forms of behavior give chances to reinforce a better one. Shaping relies on the variation that extinction produces: new or slightly different responses appear, and the closer approximations are reinforced while others are not.
- A: Variation shows extinction is under way, not that it is complete.
- C: Reinforcing any behavior would undo the plan.
- D: Variation is an effect of extinction, not proof of a new function.
Task D.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task D.6 Secondary effects of extinction and punishment in content area D, Behavior Reduction, which is 14 of the 75 scored questions.