What term describes the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of rest?

The correct answer is spontaneous recovery, which refers to the phenomenon where a conditioned response, previously extinguished, suddenly reappears after a rest period without any further conditioning. This concept is significant in classical conditioning, where if an organism has learned to associate a particular stimulus with a response, that connection doesn’t necessarily vanish completely even after the response has been extinguished. After a break, the response can re-emerge, indicating that the learning process is nuanced and not merely erased.

The other options represent different concepts in psychology. Renewal pertains to the re-emergence of a conditioned response when an association is tested in a different context than where it was extinguished. Reconditioning refers to the process of conditioning a response again after it has been extinguished, thereby strengthening or re-establishing the association. Habituation is the process where an organism shows a decrease in response to a repeated stimulus over time, which is a different aspect of learning altogether. Understanding spontaneous recovery allows insight into the complexities and persistence of learned behaviors.