What term refers to the removal of a reinforcer leading to the decrease or disappearance of a previously reinforced behavior?

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Multiple Choice

What term refers to the removal of a reinforcer leading to the decrease or disappearance of a previously reinforced behavior?

Extinction of behavior is when you stop delivering the reinforcer that has been maintaining a response. Without that reinforcing consequence, the behavior loses its purpose and its occurrence decreases over time, potentially disappearing altogether. This is different from punishment, which introduces a consequence to reduce behavior, or from shaping, which reinforces closer and closer approximations to a target behavior. In practice, you might see a brief extinction burst—the behavior may momentarily increase as the individual tests whether reinforcement will return—but then it will decline as the link between the behavior and its reinforcer is broken.

Extinction of behavior is when you stop delivering the reinforcer that has been maintaining a response. Without that reinforcing consequence, the behavior loses its purpose and its occurrence decreases over time, potentially disappearing altogether. This is different from punishment, which introduces a consequence to reduce behavior, or from shaping, which reinforces closer and closer approximations to a target behavior. In practice, you might see a brief extinction burst—the behavior may momentarily increase as the individual tests whether reinforcement will return—but then it will decline as the link between the behavior and its reinforcer is broken.

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