Extinction learning

Learning during presentations of a previously predictive cue without the expected outcome. Reduced responding need not mean that the original association has been erased. Context, delay and subsequent experience can alter which association is retrieved.

Retrieval of learning established during extinction, often tested after a delay. Successful immediate extinction need not guarantee later retrieval under different temporal or contextual conditions.^[ref]

Recovery of a conditioned response when the context differs from the context of extinction. It shows that performance after extinction can depend on retrieval conditions.

Pattwell and colleagues compared conditioned responding and extinction across human developmental groups, with parallel mouse investigations. Skin-conductance responses indexed human fear learning. The developmental laboratory pattern motivates clinical hypotheses but does not directly estimate the efficacy of exposure therapy for adolescents.^[ref]

Reappearance of fear after it has decreased. It can reflect a change in retrieval conditions without implying that no useful learning occurred during treatment.

Return of conditioned responding when testing occurs in a context different from the extinction context. It motivates tests of generalisation beyond the treatment setting.