Extinction burst

The increase occurs after a reinforcement change

Extinction is function specific. Attention extinction means the attention that maintained a response no longer follows it. Escape extinction means the response no longer produces the task removal that maintained it. Extinction for behavior maintained automatically involves a different analysis because the sensory consequence may be difficult or impossible for another person to withhold.

A candidate burst requires at least three pieces of evidence:

• a defined response and stable enough baseline for comparison
• evidence that the maintaining consequence changed as planned
• an early increase on a stated dimension and time window

Higher responding after a schedule change could also reflect pain, illness, a harder task, lost AAC access, a new person, poor implementation, an unavailable reinforcer, or ordinary variation. Calling every increase a burst can hide a failed or harmful plan.

The BACB BCBA Test Content Outline, 6th edition covers extinction, unwanted effects, risk-benefit evaluation, and function-based intervention. It is examination content rather than authority to use extinction in a particular case.

Extinction bursts are not inevitable

A historical analysis by Lerman and Iwata reviewed 113 sets of extinction data. The authors identified bursts in 27 of 113 cases, or 24%. Their criterion was met in 12% of cases combining extinction with another procedure and 36% of cases using extinction alone.

Those figures describe the published data sets and methods reviewed in 1995. They do not predict a person's response, establish current prevalence, or show that an added procedure will prevent a burst. Publication practices, populations, target responses, definitions, and treatment packages limit generalization.

An extinction burst can also be absent. A smooth early decrease does not prove the plan is safe, function matched, acceptable, or durable. Monitor the person's experience, communication, health, access, skill use, and environmental change alongside the target response.

Burst and resurgence describe different histories

An extinction burst is an early increase after the response-reinforcer relation changes. Resurgence is the return of a previously reduced response when reinforcement for a more recent alternative worsens or stops. A burst concerns the beginning of extinction; resurgence concerns recurrence after an alternative-response history.

Spontaneous recovery refers to responding that returns after time passes. Renewal refers to return with a context change. These patterns can overlap in everyday data, so label the observed sequence and evidence rather than choosing a process from appearance alone. A review of relapse research describes these distinctions and their experimental histories (Kimball and colleagues).

Extinction is one option among several

Extinction can produce escalation, variability, emotional responding, or safety concerns. It can also be impossible to implement consistently when the consequence is automatic, essential, legally required, or controlled by other people.

Function-based alternatives may include:

• changing task difficulty, noise, uncertainty, pain, access, or other antecedent conditions
• providing the relevant outcome freely on a time-based arrangement
• teaching a fast, recognizable communication response
• making reinforcement for an alternative response more immediate, valuable, or durable
• redesigning staff responses and the physical environment

In a seven-child study, Athens and Vollmer evaluated DRA without extinction and favored the alternative response by changing reinforcement immediacy, quality, duration, or multiple dimensions. The study supports a possible design route, not a universal procedure or outcome.

The Tiger, Hanley, and Bruzek FCT review discusses selecting efficient communication and arranging the maintaining reinforcer. Function matching and partner responsiveness remain necessary whether extinction is present or absent.

A fictional early-increase example

Rina is a fictional fifteen-year-old who wants clearer status during five-minute waits for a mentor. The defined response is repeating the same status question after an answer. Across ten baseline waits, Rina repeats the question 8 times total, or 0.8 per wait, with a range of 0 to 2. Staff answer 7 of 8 repetitions within ten seconds.

The team adds a visible queue and an accessible update button, reinforces button use, and stops answering repetitions. Before implementation, it defines an early-increase flag as any of the first five waits exceeding the baseline range. During the first five changed waits, repetitions are 1, 3, 1, 0, and 0. The second wait triggers the flag because three exceeds the baseline maximum of two.

The flag starts review rather than proving an extinction burst. Staff confirm queue accuracy, button access, response timing, health, and the implemented consequence. Across those five waits, Rina uses the update button in 4 of 5, and staff answer within ten seconds in 4 of 4. Rina rates 4 of 5 waits workable.

The package changed the queue, communication option, and staff response together. A one-wait increase cannot isolate extinction as its cause. The team keeps raw counts, the predeclared rule, partner fidelity, and Rina's report visible.

Safety planning comes before implementation

For aggression, self-injury, elopement, medical risk, or another dangerous response, any early increase may be unacceptable. Define prevention, trained roles, protective conditions, immediate stop criteria, emergency routes, incident review, and clinical authority before a change. Staff should never improvise restraint, seclusion, response blocking, or forced task continuation from the concept of extinction.

ASHA's AAC practice portal says AAC users should always have access to their tools or devices. Keep communication, food, water, bathroom access, mobility, prescribed care, pain care, rest, and emergency help available. Honor safety messages and pause nonemergency teaching when assent is withdrawn or distress emerges.

The current BACB Ethics Code applies to BCBA and BCaBA certificants and people who completed an application. It addresses client involvement, consent and assent when applicable, assessment, medical needs, risk, restrictive procedures, data, and continual evaluation.