In a study, researchers paired a neutral tone with a puff of air to a participant's eye over repeated trials. Initially, the tone produced no eyeblink, while the air puff reliably elicited one. After many pairings, the tone alone began to produce a reliable eyeblink response. Researchers then presented the tone repeatedly without the air puff and observed gradual weakening of the eyeblink response.
The gradual weakening of the eyeblink response when the tone is presented alone is termed
- A
Spontaneous recovery
- Bcheck_circle
Extinction
- C
Higher-order conditioning
- D
Stimulus generalization
Explanation
Extinction is the gradual decrease in conditioned responding when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US.