Final answer:
Behaviors reinforced on intermittent schedules are more resistant to extinction compared to those reinforced on continuous schedules due to the unpredictability in the reinforcement pattern.
Step-by-step explanation:
As compared to behaviors reinforced on continuous schedules, behaviors reinforced intermittently are more resistant to extinction. When considering different schedules of reinforcement in the context of operant conditioning, partial (or intermittent) reinforcement schedules result in stronger and more persistence of the learned behavior. The variance or unpredictability associated with these schedules, such as variable ratio schedules, leads to behaviors that are far more likely than those reinforced on a continuous schedule to withstand the process of extinction. This occurs because the behavior is not reinforced every time it is performed, which makes it less predictable when the reinforcement will occur and therefore the behavior persists longer in anticipation of reinforcement.