EXTINCTION

EXTINCTION

A behavior that had been reinforced for a period of time was no

longer reinforced and, therefore, the behavior stops occurring.
Extinction occurs when
 1. A behavior that has been previously reinforced

 2. no longer results in the reinforcing consequences

 3. and, therefore, the behavior stops occurring in the future.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Rae walks to her behavior modification class at 8
A.M. Right before class each day, she stops at the coffee machine, puts a dollar in the
machine, pushes the button, and gets her coffee for class. One day, she walks up to the
machine, puts her money in, and pushes the button, but nothing happens. She pushes the
button again, and nothing happens. She pushes the button harder and harder and then slams
the button a few times, but she still does not get her coffee. Finally, she gives up and walks to
class without her coffee. She doesn’t try the machine again for a week, but then she tries it
again, and the same thing happens. From then on, she never tries the machine again; instead,
she gets her coffee at the convenience store on the way to school
What kind of reinforcement was used in the previous example?

What if the behavior is reinforced intermittently?

How would you apply extinction in decreasing night time tantrums of the child? If
the child tantrum behavior is reinforced by the attention of the parents.
 EXTINCTION BURST
Increase in the frequency, duration, or intensity before the behavior decreases and ultimately stops.

Each night, 4-year-old Amanda cried at bedtime for 10-15 minutes, and her parents came to her room and
talked to her until she fell asleep. By doing so, her parents were accidentally reinforcing her crying. After
talking to her pediatrician, the parents decided not to go into her room or talk to her when she cried at
bedtime. The first night, she cried for 25 minutes, scream and hit her pillow before falling asleep. By the
end of the week, she quit crying at all at bedtime. When they stopped going to her room after she cried,
the parents were using extinction. The increase in crying duration the first night is an extinction burst.

One other characteristic of an extinction burst is that novel behaviors (behaviors that do not typically
occur in a particular situation) may occur for a brief period when a behavior is no longer reinforced.
Novel behavior may include emotional responses

Aggressive behavior

Think of some real life examples.

The extinction burst serves a valuable purpose

The extinction burst is not necessarily a conscious process; natural characteristics of extinction
situation
 SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
Behavior may occur again even after it has not occurred for some time. This is called spontaneous
recovery.

Amanda may cry at night long after extinction, but if she gets no attention for the crying, it will not
occur often or for very long. However, if spontaneous recovery occurs and the behavior is now
reinforced, the effect of extinction will be lost

If there is no reinforcement—the behavior will not continue for long.

 PROCEDURAL VARIATIONS
If a behavior is positively reinforced, a consequence is applied or added after the behavior.

Withhold the consequence

If a behavior is negatively reinforced, the behavior results in the removal or avoidance of an aversive
stimulus

Eliminate escape and avoidance

Suppose that you wear earplugs in your job at the factory to decrease the loud noise of the equipment.
Wearing earplugs is negatively reinforced by escape from the loud noise. If the earplugs wore out and
they no longer decreased the noise, you would stop wearing them. The behavior of wearing earplugs
would be extinguished because wearing them no longer produced escape from the noise

Joe is a college student who works part-time as a custodian. He hates to clean the bathrooms.
Whenever the supervisor asks Joe to do so, Joe makes up excuses why he can’t clean the bathrooms,
and the supervisor lets him out of the job and asks someone else to do it. Joe’s behavior of making up
excuses helps him avoid cleaning bathrooms. Making up excuses, therefore, is negatively reinforced.

How would the supervisor use extinction to stop Joe from making excuses?
 MISCONCEPTIONS

Using extinction means simply ignoring the behavior?

Comment
 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE
EXTINCTION
1. The reinforcement schedule before extinction
The reinforcement schedule partly determines whether extinction results in a rapid
decrees in the behavior or a more gradual decrease

When a behavior is continuously reinforced, it decreases rapidly once the reinforcement is

terminated

When a behavior is intermittently reinforced, it often decreases more gradually once the
reinforcement is terminated
2. The occurrence of reinforcement after extinction

If reinforcement occurs in the course of extinction, it takes longer for the behavior to decrease.

The tantrums had almost stopped after the parents had used extinction for a few days. However, when
an aunt paid attention to the child’s tantrums one night, they increased in intensity
 APPLYING EXTINCTION

To use extinction, you must first identify the reinforcer that maintains the problem behavior
Then eliminate it.
A behavior that is no longer reinforced will decrease in frequency and stop
1. Collect data to assess treatment effects.
2. Identify the reinforcer for the problem behavior through functional assessment.
3. Eliminate the reinforcer after each instance of the problem behavior.
■ Have you identified the reinforcer?
■ Can you eliminate the reinforcer?
■ Is extinction safe to use?

4. Can an extinction burst (escalation of the problem behavior) be tolerated?

5. Can consistency be maintained?
6. Consider the schedule of reinforcement for the problem behavior.
7. Reinforce alternative behaviors.
8. Promote generalization and maintenance
 COLLECT DATA TO ASSESS
TREATMENT EFFECTS
Behavioral definition of a problem
Baseline
Record problem before and after extinction use
Document change
 IDENTIFYING THE REINFORCER FOR THE PROBLEM
BEHAVIOR THROUGH
FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT

Identify the specific reinforcer

The success of an extinction procedure depends on whether the particular reinforcer

maintaining the problem behavior has been identified
 ELIMINATING THE REINFORCER AFTER EACH INSTANCE OF
THE PROBLEM
BEHAVIOR
Have You Identified the Reinforcer?

Can You Eliminate the Reinforcer?

Must determine whether the change agent (parent, teacher, staff member, nurse, client) can control the

reinforcer.

For some problem behaviors, however, the change agents do not have control over the reinforcer

A teenager plays her stereo so loudly that it disturbs the rest of the family. The reinforcer for this

behavior is the loud music. (Assume you have ruled out the parents’ attention as the reinforcer.) Unless

the parents have installed an electronic device on the stereo that does not permit the volume to be

turned up beyond a certain level, the parents do not have control over this reinforcer
Is Extinction Safe to Use?

Important to determine whether extinction could result in harm to the person exhibiting the problem
behavior or to other people in the immediate environment

Rupert is a young man with severe intellectual disability who works in a sheltered workshop during the
day. He sits at a table with three other people and assembles parts for a local factory. Rupert engages in
a problem behavior in which he attacks the people at his table. He grabs people by the hair and hits
their heads on the table. When this happens, staff members immediately intervene and separate Rupert
from the other person. The functional assessment identified staff attention as the reinforcer maintaining
this problem behavior. Extinction would require the staff to provide no attention after each instance of
the problem. However, it would be extremely harmful to the person being attacked if the staff did not
intervene immediately. In this case, therefore, extinction is not a safe procedure and cannot be used.
Can an Extinction Burst (Escalation of the Problem Behavior) Be Tolerated?

Must anticipate the extinction burst and be certain that the change agents can tolerate the escalation in
the behavior

If the parents are not prepared for this outcome, the use of extinction may fail. The first time the
parents ignore the tantrums at bedtime and the problem behavior escalates, they might become
concerned or frustrated and go into the child’s room, thereby reinforcing the tantrum behavior. This is
likely to make the problem even worse because the parents will reinforce a worse instance of the
problem behavior

Psychoeducation

If escalation of the behavior is likely to harm the person, must devise a plan to eliminate or minimize
the harm
Can Consistency Be Maintained?
For extinction to be implemented correctly, the reinforcer must never follow the problem behavior
Lack of consistency is a common reason for the failure of extinction procedures
Role of grandparents?
All change agents must be trained to use the procedure correctly to ensure consistency in implementing
an extinction procedure.

The change agents must receive clear instructions to be consistent and a rationale explaining why
consistency is important.

Furthermore, the best results are achieved if the extinction procedure is modeled for the change agents
and they have the opportunity to rehearse the procedure and receive feedback.
 TAKING ACCOUNT OF THE SCHEDULE OF
REINFORCEMENT BEFORE EXTINCTION

When the problem behavior is reinforced on a continuous schedule, extinction often is more rapid.

When the problem behavior is maintained by an intermittent reinforcement schedule, the problem
behavior is likely to decrease more gradually during extinction

Helps you anticipate the rate of decrease in the problem behavior once extinction is implemented.
 REINFORCING ALTERNATE
BEHAVIORS
Extinction procedure should be used in conjunction with a reinforcement of alternate
behavior

Promoting Generalization and Maintenance

Generalization of the behavior change after the use of extinction means that the problem
behavior will stop (and the alternative behavior will occur) in all relevant circumstances.

Maintenance means that the behavior change will last over time.
 DIFFERENTIAL
REINFORCEMENT OF
ALTERNATE BEHAVIOR
Behavioral procedure used to increase the frequency of a desirable behavior and to decrease the
frequency of undesirable behaviors.

The desirable behavior is reinforced each time it occurs.

At the same time, any undesirable behaviors that may interfere with the desirable behavior are not
reinforced.

Thus, DRA involves combining reinforcement for a desirable behavior and extinction of undesirable
behaviors
 WHEN TO USE DRA
To determine whether DRA is appropriate, you must answer three questions.
 Do you want to increase the rate of a desirable behavior?

 Is the behavior already occurring at least occasionally?

 Do you have access to a reinforcer that you can deliver after the occurrence of the
behavior?

If the behavior is not occurring at all, DRA by itself is not an appropriate procedure.
 HOW TO USE DRA
Define the Desirable Behavior

Define the Undesirable Behavior

Reinforcer assessment; Identify the Reinforcer

 Observe the person and note

 Observe the consequence currently maintaining the behavior

 Ask questions

 Preference assessment: Try out a variety of different stimuli and see which ones function as
reinforcers.
Reinforce the Desirable Behavior Immediately and Consistently

Eliminate Reinforcement for the Undesirable Behaviors

Use Intermittent Reinforcement to Maintain the Target Behavior

 once the desirable behavior is occurring consistently and the undesirable behaviors occur rarely, if at
all, you should start to thin the schedule of reinforcement and reinforce the desirable behavior
intermittently.

 Intermittent reinforcement maintains the desirable behavior over time by making it more resistant to
extinction

 Program for Generalization

Jason, an 8-year-old boy with autism, is in third grade. Children with autism often prefer to be alone
and engage in solitary behavior. Sometimes children with autism engage in aggressive, destructive, or
self-injurious behavior (SIB) when demands are placed on them. When the teacher asked Jason to do
his schoolwork (e.g., complete problems in his workbook), he often slammed his fists on his desk and
rocked back and forth violently in his seat. At this, the teacher usually let Jason take a break and sit in a
chair by himself at the back of the room until he calmed down. Because this behavior occurred four or
five times every day, Jason was not getting much schoolwork done. Jason exhibited the desirable
behavior (completing schoolwork) at least sometimes during the day. Not knowing what to do about
Jason’s behavior, the teacher consulted the school psychologist.
Because escape from his schoolwork was reinforcing his outbursts, she did not let him escape: He
could not get out of his seat and sit in the back of the room when he had an outburst. Instead, he had to
stay in his seat and, when he calmed down, he still had to do the workbook problem. In this way, doing
his workbook problems resulted in reinforcement and having outbursts did not result in reinforcement

Once Jason was completing workbook problems consistently and not engaging in the undesirable
behavior, the final steps in using differential reinforcement were to switch to an intermittent
reinforcement schedule and to program for generalization