psych question: extinction burst

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theonlytycrane

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This is a question from a Khan resource. An aggressive cat is given treats when it "plays nicely" to reinforce less aggressive behavior. When treats are not given anymore, the cat acts even more aggressive during playtime.

The answer given for this behavior is extinction burst. I thought extinction burst was when a behavior is increased to try to get a reward after the reward is no longer given. I.e., would the cat try to play extra nice to try to get the reward even if it's not given anymore? I didn't think that going back to aggressive behavior matched the answer choice.

Happy Friday :)

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This is a question from a Khan resource. An aggressive cat is given treats when it "plays nicely" to reinforce less aggressive behavior. When treats are not given anymore, the cat acts even more aggressive during playtime.

The answer given for this behavior is extinction burst. I thought extinction burst was when a behavior is increased to try to get a reward after the reward is no longer given. I.e., would the cat try to play extra nice to try to get the reward even if it's not given anymore? I didn't think that going back to aggressive behavior matched the answer choice.

Happy Friday :)

I am guessing the Khan writer failed to properly clarify or double check (Khan is peppered with small and not so small scientific error or lack of clarity.) This would take a lot of finesse to fit the meaning of extinction burst.

Extinction, when used consistently over time, results in the eventual decrease of the undesired behavior, what Khan answer choice was talking about was a short-term extinction burst. An extinction burst will often occur when the extinction procedure has just begun. This usually consists of a sudden and temporary increase in the response's frequency, followed by the eventual decline and extinction of the behavior targeted for elimination.

For example, a rat that has been reinforced to depress a lever (part of my phD research). During its training history, every time the rat depressed the lever, it received a food pellet (i.e. a reinforce). Thus, whenever the rat was hungry, it will want to depress the lever. However, if the lever were to be turned off, the rat will first try depressing the lever as it did earlier. When no pellet comes, he will try again and again and again.... for a short time. After this "burst" of activity, in which his arm behavior got him no food, the lever pressing will decrease.

Extinction burst can be understood using perceptual control theory, which states: the degree of output involved in any action is proportional to the discrepancy between the reference value (desired rate of reward in the operant paradigm) and the current input. Thus, when reward is removed, the discrepancy increases, and the output is increased.

Since the MCAT loves to tie in multiple topics, we can even tie in biology. One advantage of extinction burst is that in a given environment, an animal that persists in a learned behavior, despite not resulting in immediate reinforcement, might still have a chance of producing reinforcing consequences if the animal tries again. This animal would be at an advantage over another animal that gives up too easily.

I'm not a psychologist, but I would say that this is a small error on their part as this does not really fit the definition of EB.

hope this helps, good luck!
 
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I am guessing the Khan writer failed to properly clarify or double check (Khan is peppered with small and not so small scientific error or lack of clarity.) This would take a lot of finesse to fit the meaning of extinction burst.

Extinction, when used consistently over time, results in the eventual decrease of the undesired behavior, what Khan answer choice was talking about was a short-term extinction burst. An extinction burst will often occur when the extinction procedure has just begun. This usually consists of a sudden and temporary increase in the response's frequency, followed by the eventual decline and extinction of the behavior targeted for elimination.

For example, a rat that has been reinforced to depress a lever (part of my phD research). During its training history, every time the rat depressed the lever, it received a food pellet (i.e. a reinforce). Thus, whenever the rat was hungry, it will want to depress the lever. However, if the lever were to be turned off, the rat will first try depressing the lever as it did earlier. When no pellet comes, he will try again and again and again.... for a short time. After this "burst" of activity, in which his arm behavior got him no food, the lever pressing will decrease.

Extinction burst can be understood using perceptual control theory, which states: the degree of output involved in any action is proportional to the discrepancy between the reference value (desired rate of reward in the operant paradigm) and the current input. Thus, when reward is removed, the discrepancy increases, and the output is increased.

Since the MCAT loves to tie in multiple topics, we can even tie in biology. One advantage of extinction burst is that in a given environment, an animal that persists in a learned behavior, despite not resulting in immediate reinforcement, might still have a chance of producing reinforcing consequences if the animal tries again. This animal would be at an advantage over another animal that gives up too easily.

I'm not a psychologist, but I would say that this is a small error on their part as this does not really fit the definition of EB.

hope this helps, good luck!


Hey, I have a quick question about this. So in your example, extinction burst refers to the increase in the actual new learned behavior (not a reversion and increase in old behavior), while in this KA question, they say that we see the spike occurring with the old behavior (not the new learned behavior). Just to be clear, this is where they made the mistake? Your example is better than theirs in this respect?
 
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