Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect

The partial reinforcement extinction effect is the finding that a behavior reinforced only some of the times it occurs, rather than every time, becomes more resistant to extinction than a behavior that was reinforced every single time it occurred. Once reinforcement is withdrawn entirely, a continuously reinforced behavior tends to stop relatively quickly because the change from constant reward to no reward is easy to detect, whereas a partially reinforced behavior persists longer because the absence of reward is harder to distinguish from an ordinary unrewarded trial within the earlier, intermittent pattern. The effect is one of the classic findings of operant conditioning research and helps explain why intermittently rewarded behaviors, including many everyday habits, can be especially hard to eliminate.