ABSTRACT
Operant conditioning results in changes in the behavioral repertoire. It provides a method by which the organism adapts to its own circumstances by selectively increasing the frequency of responses that are followed by reinforcing stimuli. It is not surprising to find that if a previously reinforced operant response is no longer followed by its usual reinforcing consequence, the frequency of the operant declines. This process is called extinction. This chapter explains operant extinction has the same overall effect as the related process of extinction following classical conditioning, first studied by I. P. Pavlov. The fact that any type of intermittent reinforcement increases resistance to extinction has generated a large research area of its own. Although most intermittent reinforcement schedules have powerful effects on behavior, these are not always observed when adults are trained with these procedures in experiments. The amount of operant behavior in extinction is affected by a number of features of the conditioning situation.
