Final answer:
Spontaneous recovery is the brief return of an operant response after extinction, illustrating that the learned association has been suppressed rather than erased. It is different from shaping, stimulus discrimination, and stimulus generalization, but is a hallmark phenomenon observed in the study of both classical and operant conditioning.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Operant Conditioning and Spontaneous Recovery
The brief return of an operant response after extinction is known as spontaneous recovery. This occurs when a behavior that had previously been extinguished (the conditioned response has decreased due to the unconditioned stimulus no longer being paired with the conditioned stimulus) reappears after a period without any reinforcement or conditioning trials. It is a phenomenon observed in both classical and operant conditioning and illustrates that extinction does not completely erase the learned association, but rather suppresses it.
Operant conditioning is a learning process by which an animal or human associates a particular behavior with its consequences. For instance, when a dolphin performs a flip and receives fish as a reward, it is more likely to repeat this behavior in the future, demonstrating the power of reinforcers. If, however, the reinforcement stops, the behavior is likely to decrease, leading to what is known as extinction.
Stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization are also important concepts in the study of learning. Stimulus discrimination refers to the ability to respond differently to similar stimuli, whereas stimulus generalization is the demonstration of a conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus. However, these concepts are distinct from spontaneous recovery, which specifically describes the resurgence of an extinguished behavior after a pause.
Shaping is another learning technique that involves rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior. It is a method used to establish a new behavior by reinforcing behaviors that are incrementally closer to the desired behavior until the final behavior is achieved.