On day 14 and 15 of training, Monica did not
receive any reinforcement for pressing the bar in order to extinguish the
previously learned behavior. This process is known as extinction.
When Monica entered the operant box, she went directly to the bar and
began pressing. After every few presses, she would stop and sniff the
magazine in search of her reward. Monica showed signs of frustration
after about 40 presses and moved to the opposite corner of the box where she
sniffed and gazed out of the clear wall.
At first she spent about 30 seconds not paying
attention to the bar and sitting in the opposite corner, but as the session
continued, she completed longer time periods without pressing the bar. On
one occasion, Monica stared out of the box for two minutes straight, completely
ignoring the bar and magazine.
An extinction burst is the abrupt increase in a
previously reinforced behavior after the reinforcement is removed. The
extinction burst was evident at the beginning of both extinction training
sessions. In the first five minutes, she pressed the bar 174 times on day
14 and 117 on day 15. Monica's bar pressing behavior increased when
her reinforcement was removed. She also exhibited frustration by being
more aggressive towards the bar. As seen in the video clip, she exhorts
great effort to press the bar and spins around the sides trying to figure out
how to get reinforced.
Spontaneous
recovery occurs when an organism is put back in a training situation and an
extinguished behavior reappears. I did not see this occur with Monica.
In the last minute interval on day 14, she pressed the bar 55 times;
therefore, I do not believe that the behavior was yet extinguished.
During the same interval on day 15, she only pressed the lever 7 times,
This drastic decrease in the bar pressing behavior shows that the behavior has
been extinguished. I believe that if Monica is placed in the operant box
in the near future, spontaneous recovery would occur; she would press the bar
again.
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