AP Psychology 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

When a conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus, the phenomenon that occurs is known as extinction. In classical conditioning, extinction refers to the process where the association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) weakens and eventually fades. This happens because the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, which naturally elicits a response, leads to a diminishing of the conditioned response that was previously triggered by the conditioned stimulus.

In this context, if an individual has learned to associate a bell ringing (the conditioned stimulus) with the presentation of food (the unconditioned stimulus), presenting the bell without the food multiple times will lead to a decline in the response of salivation. Eventually, the individual may no longer salivate to the sound of the bell because the reinforcement (food) is no longer present, indicating that the learned behavior has faded.

This concept is key in understanding how learning can be unlearned or diminished, illustrating the processes of behavior modification and the dynamics of conditioned responses in psychological contexts.