Question

As a child, Jordan would jump excitedly when the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song started playing on the television, receiving laughter and attention from adults for the excited jumping. Now that Jordan is a teenager, adults no longer direct laughter and attention at the excited jumping, and Jordan no longer reacts to the familiar theme song. This scenario illustrates the process of____________.

Answer 1

Answer: Extinction

Explanation: When he was a kid, Jordan responded to the familiar Sponge Bob Square Pants theme by jumping, which caught the attention and laughter of adults, which is reinforcement and the impetus to continue doing so, wanting attention and laughter. As he grew older, Jordan may have continued to jump on a familiar topic, but with a certain number of years, it ceased to cause attention and laughter in adults, not because it was no longer interesting, but with certain years it became inappropriate for Jordan as a teenager to jump with Sponge Bob Square Pants theme. When such behaviour became inappropriate, adults were stop responding with laughter, hence to show attention and ceased to reinforce such behaviour. It is, in fact, extinction, i.e the cessation of certain learned behaviour when reinforcements begin to disappear.