the human condition

Spontaneous recovery, reinstatement, and renewal are psychology principles commonly taught alongside concepts such as extinction and human memory. I could go into a lengthly lecture about all that stuff, but I will try to limit the psycho-babble and get to my point. Although, I do feel a brief discourse is necessary. Essentially, extinction is a type of learning which reduces a response to an associated cue due to the absence of a once appetitive or adverse stimuli. What this means to us is that we learn to not do things once something that we liked or disliked is no longer present. There are a few factors that can influence the profoundness of this type of learning, however, I'll only go into them if needed. The main thing about extinction is that even though we may stop being influenced by a cue or cease doing a behavior, it is not forgetting. We are just simply learning that the once stimulating cue, which could be anything, such as a light, a song, a necklace from a lover, or opening a condom package, is no longer as stimulating to us because the desireable or unfavorable incentive is gone. Consider this example, when you start dating someone, one calls the other and sets a time and place to meet, perhaps to have dinner or drinks. You go out with him/her and had a great time. In this example, the phone call is the cue, answering the phone and going out with the person is the response and the incentive is having a wonderul time.This is called associative learning, where you paired the phone call from the person you're dating with answering, going out and having a great time. However, over time, and after a few dates you realize your interest has peaked and are no longer having fun. You continue to meet but the enjoyment is gone from the experience. Eventually the phone calls from the person becomes dull and no longer excites you. Finally, you don't even pick up. This is extinction.

Spontaneous recovery is a curious phenomenon that occurs after a cue becomes extinguished. For simplicity, I'll continue to use the example from above. So you've stopped answering the phone from that individual. The cue has been extinguished, it no longer elicits a response. A few months go by without the person calling. But today, which is a wednesday by the way, he/she calls you. You quickly answer the phone this time and agree to go out again. Why? Weren't you bored of this person? This is called spontaenous recovery. Its when a previously extinguished cue elicits the response (answering the phone and going out with him/her) because there is a long delay between presentations of the cue, in this case the person's phone calls. There are scientific ways to limit this and it is also something we can cognitively dismiss in my opinion, but surely enough, many have or will fall victim to this effect.

Similalry, reinstatement, and renewal occurs postextinction and provide evidence that extinction is not forgetting.

Using the same example from above, reinstatement is when the incentive, having a good time, is revisited and sparks the cue to elicit the response. In other words, you are out having a jolly adventure and because the feeling is similiar to when you were seeing the person, the next time he/she calls you, you are prone to pick up the phone and agree to go out again. Renewal has to do with context. Lets say while you were dating this person, he/she took you to a particular bar or restuarant during the extinction phase of the relationship. A reminder, during the extinction phase, the incentive is not present. One day, you are with some friends in a novel restuarant and you see this person there. It is likely that a renewal of the response occurs. Meaning, you are more likely to answer the phone and go out with the person again even though the incentive was missing during previous encounters with the individual.

Now these aren't black or white occurrences, like I've mentioned, there are ways to limit these effects and I also believe that one can overcome them by altering one's way of thinking. However, these effects can be profound and will influence you despite what you are saying in your head right now.

These concepts all tie into human memory. Spontaneous recovery, reinstatement, and renewal help trigger the brain to recall memories of the person although it may vary how or in what conditions it does so. Although I only gave a few examples, these effects can generalize to many scenarios. So the next time you get that feeling to call him or answer the phone from her even after a bad breakup, or you find yourself reconciling old relationships, or the next time you see an ex at a random bar and you get that strange feeling, and even the next time you're out with your boys or gfs and are having an excellent time, but oddly think of past lovers... Now you kinda know why. Thank associative learning and the limitations of extinction.