PSYC 351 Lecture Notes - Lecture 45: Habituation

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 351
• Professor: Stephane Gaskin

Document Summary

This raises the possibility that the memory of acquisition might be substantially altered by conducting extinction trials during the reconsolidation window. Strengthening or enhancing extinction learning can prove useful in therapy. However, for these strategies to have clinical applicability, the long-lasting effects of these manipulations need to be tested in renewal, reinstatement or spontaneous recovery procedures. Studies of spontaneous recovery, renewal, reinstatement, and resurgence all indicate that extinction does not involves unlearning. Other studies have shown that response-outcome (r-o) and stimulus-outcome (s-o) associations remain pretty much intact after extinction. This questions is the topic of continuing debate and empirical study. A fully satisfactory answer is not yet available, but investigators are considering the importance of inhibitory s-r associations motivated by the unexpected absence of the reinforcer in extinction. It is important to note that extinction involves a special kind of nonreinforcement. It involves nonreinforcement after a history of conditioning with repeated presentations of the reinforcer.