Another difficulty of extinction is that a behavior that has disappeared during an extinction session may reappear at the next opportunity after some time has passed. The reappearance of an extinguished behavior following a rest is called spontaneous recovery. Let’s reconsider the finger snapping example. Suppose that the teacher initiated an extinction program for finger snapping when the student returned to school after lunch. During the first hour, 10 instances of finger snapping occurred, and the teacher and the other students ignored each.
Pitfalls of extinction