Extinction in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the process of withholding reinforcement for a behavior that was previously reinforced, with the goal of weakening and eventually eliminating that behavior over time. In simpler terms: if a behavior used to “work” for a person (getting them attention, letting them escape a task, or giving them access to something they want), extinction means that behavior no longer produces that result. Without the payoff, the behavior gradually fades.
Understanding how extinction works, what to expect during the process, and why consistency matters is essential for anyone involved in ABA therapy, whether you’re a caregiver, educator, or student of behavior analysis.
How Extinction Works
Every behavior that persists does so because it’s being reinforced in some way. A child who screams at the grocery store and then receives a candy bar has learned that screaming produces candy. Extinction targets that connection. If the screaming no longer results in candy, the child eventually learns the behavior doesn’t work anymore and stops doing it.
The key mechanism is straightforward: no reward, no attention, and no access to whatever the person was getting follows the target behavior. The reinforcement that maintained the behavior is identified first through a process called a functional assessment, and then that specific reinforcement is withheld. This distinction matters because extinction isn’t just “ignoring” a behavior. It’s removing the precise consequence that was keeping the behavior going.
Types of Extinction by Function
Because different behaviors are maintained by different types of reinforcement, the way extinction looks in practice depends on why the behavior is happening in the first place.
Attention Extinction
When a behavior is maintained by reactions from other people, extinction means providing no reaction whatsoever. If a child pinches a sibling because the sibling yells and argues back, attention extinction would involve the sibling giving the least amount of response needed to stay safe, without the usual hitting back, arguing, or name-calling. The critical detail here is identifying whose attention is reinforcing the behavior. If it’s a sibling’s reaction rather than a parent’s, the sibling is the one who needs to withhold the response.
Escape Extinction
Some behaviors are maintained because they allow a person to avoid or get out of something unpleasant, like a difficult task. Escape extinction means the demand stays in place even after the challenging behavior occurs. If a child throws materials during a math lesson and the lesson typically stops, escape extinction means the math lesson continues. Whatever demands were in place before the behavior must still be in place after it.
Sensory Extinction
Behaviors maintained by automatic or sensory reinforcement (the behavior itself feels good, regardless of other people’s responses) require a different approach. Sensory extinction works by masking or removing the sensory consequence. The person can still perform the behavior, but it no longer produces the same reinforcing sensation. For example, if someone repeatedly bangs an object on a table because of the sound it produces, placing a soft pad on the surface changes the sensory feedback. The behavior becomes less rewarding, so it decreases. Sensory extinction is not sensory deprivation. It targets the feedback from one specific behavior, not a person’s overall sensory experience.
The Extinction Burst
One of the most important things to understand about extinction is that behavior almost always gets worse before it gets better. This temporary spike is called an extinction burst.
When a behavior that used to work suddenly stops working, the natural response is to try harder. Think of pressing an elevator button: if it doesn’t light up, you press it again, harder, multiple times. That escalation is an extinction burst. The behavior temporarily increases in intensity, frequency, or duration before it begins to decrease. A child who used to whine for a cookie might start whining louder, longer, and more often when whining stops producing cookies.
For tantrums specifically, the average extinction burst lasts about a week before the behavior fades. But the timeline varies depending on how consistently reinforcement is withheld and how long the behavior was reinforced before extinction began. Behaviors that were reinforced for months or years typically take longer to extinguish than newer behaviors.
Extinction-Induced Aggression
Beyond the burst in the target behavior itself, extinction can also produce new aggressive behaviors. A study by Lerman and colleagues examined 41 data sets from 30 participants undergoing extinction-based treatment for self-injurious behavior. About 40% of cases showed either a response burst or an increase in aggression, and nearly 20% showed both. However, both side effects were less likely when extinction was combined with reinforcement-based strategies rather than used alone.
This is one reason extinction is rarely used in isolation. For severe or dangerous behaviors, withholding reinforcement during an escalation could cause harm to the individual or to others nearby. In some cases, the person engaging in the behavior is physically larger than the person implementing the procedure, making strict extinction impractical or unsafe.
Pairing Extinction With Reinforcement
Best practice in ABA involves using extinction as one component of a broader approach, not as a standalone technique. The most common pairing is with differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. This means reinforcement for the problem behavior is minimized while reinforcement for an appropriate replacement behavior is maximized.
For example, if a child screams to get a parent’s attention, extinction alone would mean ignoring the screaming. But paired with differential reinforcement, the child is also taught to tap the parent’s arm or say “excuse me,” and that alternative behavior receives immediate, enthusiastic attention. The child learns that screaming no longer works, but a better strategy does. Research consistently shows this combination is more effective and produces fewer negative side effects than extinction alone.
Why Consistency Is Critical
The single biggest threat to successful extinction is inconsistency. If a behavior is sometimes reinforced and sometimes not, it creates what behavioral researchers call the partial reinforcement extinction effect. Intermittently reinforced behaviors become significantly more resistant to extinction than behaviors that were reinforced every time. In practical terms, if you ignore a tantrum nine times but give in on the tenth, you’ve taught the person that persistence pays off, making the behavior harder to eliminate than it was before you started.
Caregivers face a very real challenge here. Research from the University of Kansas found that when faced with extinction-induced increases in behavior frequency and aggression, all caregivers in the study reverted to previously reinforced responses like reprimands or soothing statements instead of maintaining extinction. This makes sense: caregivers have their own reinforcement history. Giving in to problem behavior produces an immediate decrease in the aversive situation, which is negatively reinforcing for the caregiver. The short-term relief of compliance trains caregivers to keep giving in.
This is why caregiver support and crisis planning are considered essential parts of any extinction-based intervention. Parents and teachers need help tolerating the burst without accidentally reinforcing the behavior, and they need a clear plan for responding to urgent situations that may arise during the process.
Spontaneous Recovery
Even after a behavior has been successfully extinguished, it can reappear. This phenomenon, called spontaneous recovery, happens because extinction doesn’t erase the original learning. Instead, it creates a second, competing memory that inhibits the behavior. Research over the past three decades has established that neither classical nor operant extinction involves the complete destruction of previous learning.
Spontaneous recovery occurs when the “extinction memory” fails to be retrieved, often because of a change in context. A behavior that was extinguished at school might reappear at home, or a behavior that hasn’t occurred in weeks might resurface after a break in routine. The original learning is still stored; it’s just being suppressed by the newer extinction learning. When the context shifts enough, the suppression can temporarily fail.
This is why follow-through matters long after the initial behavior change. If the behavior reappears and is reinforced again, the gains from extinction can erode quickly. Maintaining consistent expectations across settings and over time helps keep the extinction memory strong.