Pavlov's theory -spontaneous recovery

Define spontaneous recovery, describe Pavlov's theory about why it occurs and outline one study, which demonstrates spontaneous recovery.

After extinction of conditional response due to time lapse, the return of conditional response drawn out by the conditioned stimulus (CS) is referred to as spontaneous recovery (Sandoz & Pham-Delègue, 2004). Pavlov addressed this phenomenon of spontaneous recovery as an evidence of CS-US association not fully eliminated in the extinction phase. This means that it is hard to erase the previous learning, and the time lapse served as a crucial factor to determine the level of spontaneous recovery (Mazur, 2006).

Sandoz & Pham-Delègue (2004) reproduced the study on how honeybees had been used, to test Pavlov’s theory about spontaneous recovery in controlled laboratory conditions. The proboscis extension response of the honeybees can be conditioned by associating an odour stimulus (CS) to a sucrose reward (US). After a single CS-US pairing in honeybees, extinction process occurs when conditioned responses to the CS are eliminated after repeated unrewarded presentation of the CS. The time intervals during training, the number of conditioning, and whether extinction trials have an influence on the amount of spontaneous recovery were investigated in this study. The result showed that spontaneous recovery mostly appeared in a massed fashion (1-min intertrial intervals) and highly relied on time intervals through conditioning and extinction (1 hr being an optimum). In addition, multiple conditioning trials improved the level of spontaneous recovery, whereas extinction trials lessen it. After the extinction process in the single-trial conditioning, spontaneous recovery appeared once only.

In short, the study of spontaneous recovery revealed that memory patterns of short-term and long-terms depends on the interval of conditioning and extinction trials.

References:

Mazur, J. E. (2006). Learning and Behavior (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Sandoz, J. C., & Pham-Delègue M., H. (2004). Spontaneous recovery after extinction of the conditioned proboscis extension response in the honeybee. Learning & Memory. 11. 586-597.