AP Psychology Practice Test

What happens in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced?

1. Acquisition

2. Extinction

3. Operant behavior

4. Spontaneous recovery

The correct answer is: Extinction

In operant conditioning, when a response is no longer reinforced, it leads to a process known as extinction. Extinction occurs when the desired behavior decreases or eventually disappears because reinforcement is no longer provided after the behavior is performed. In essence, since the consequences that initially encouraged the behavior are withdrawn, the individual is likely to stop that behavior over time. This process highlights the reliance on reinforcement for maintaining behavior. For example, if a child receives praise (a positive reinforcement) for cleaning their room and that praise is suddenly no longer given, the child might stop cleaning their room altogether as the motivating factor has been removed. While acquisition refers to the initial learning phase where an association between a behavior and its consequence is established, extinction specifically addresses the reduction of that learned behavior when the reinforcement is absent. Operant behavior is simply the behavior that is being reinforced or punished, and spontaneous recovery pertains to the re-emergence of a previously extinguished behavior after a period of non-exposure to the reinforcement, which does not apply in the current scenario of immediate response cessation.