An example of extinction in classical conditioning involves an animal that was conditioned to associate the sound of an electric can opener with receiving food. If the can opener is subsequently used without providing the animal's food, the animal hears the conditioned stimulus (can opener) but does not receive the unconditioned stimulus (food). Over time, the animal's conditioned response to the sound will gradually weaken and disappear.

Google

In classical conditioning, extinction is the decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus. Over time, as the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented alone, the organism's response gradually weakens and eventually disappears.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Ivan Pavlov explored the process of extinction in his classical conditioning experiments with dogs. After initially conditioning the dogs to respond to a tone by pairing it with meat powder, he began sounding the tone without presenting the meat powder. Because the conditioned stimulus (tone) was presented without the unconditioned stimulus (meat powder), the dogs gradually stopped responding to the tone.

Learn Before

Related