Spontaneous Recovery is best described as a behavior phenomenon in which a previously extinguished response reappears after a period of non-exposure.

• A. Extinction
• B. Spontaneous Recovery
• C. Habituation
• D. Generalization

Answer: (B)

Spontaneous recovery is the phenomenon where a behavior that had been reduced through extinction reappears after a period without exposure to the conditioned stimulus. This shows that extinction isn’t erasing the original association but suppressing it; the memory of the link between the stimulus and response persists and can surface after a break, usually weaker than before. The scenario described fits this precisely: a previously extinguished response reappears after a period of non-exposure to the stimulus. Extinction is the process of the response fading when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus. Habituation is a non-associative decline in response to a repeated, benign stimulus. Generalization is responding to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.