Part 3: **RFT (Resistance to Extinction)** = Various ways we might develop resilience to the extinction process: * **Renewal effect**: The conditioned response (CR) re-emerges when the subject is placed in a different context than the one used during extinction. * **Reinstatement**: A single exposure to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) can restore the conditioned response. * **External validation**: Social reinforcement of the conditioned response (e.g., attention or sympathy) sustains the behavior. * **Confounding emotional responses**: Introducing secondary emotions (e.g., frustration during exposure therapy) can create new negative associations with the conditioned stimulus. * **Substitute triggers**: A person extinguishing a trigger of stuttering might shift their attention on "feared words" to associated cues, like "feared situations" or "immersing oneself in a stutter state"  * **Ambiguous reinforcement**: Mixed signals during extinction trials (e.g., alternating between reinforcement and extinction) can strengthen unwanted associations. * **Lack of generalization**: Failure to expose the individual to varied contexts during extinction training limits its effectiveness. * **Inconsistent extinction trials**: Erratic exposure to the CS can inadvertently reinforce the conditioned response. * **Memory reconsolidation**: Frequent recall of the conditioned response strengthens the neural pathways associated with it. * **The extinction burst** (temporary increase in unwanted behavior) might lead to strengthening the negative association, creating new negative associations, or linking new stimuli to the conditioned response * **Contextual mismatch**: which refers to a situation where extinction training doesn't generalize well to real-world settings because the learning becomes tied to the context in which the extinction occurs.  * **Stimulus generalization**: When a conditioned response (CR) is triggered by stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus (CS). For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a bell may also salivate to similar sounds. * **Higher-order conditioning**: A previously conditioned stimulus (CS1) is used as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) to condition a new stimulus (CS2). *For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a bell (CS1) may later salivate to a light (CS2) paired with the bell.* * **Latent inhibition**: Reduced ability to condition a stimulus if the subject has been repeatedly exposed to it without any unconditioned stimulus (UCS). *For example, if a dog hears a tone multiple times without food, it is harder to later associate the tone with food. If stutterers are used to stutter even in non-threatening situations, it is harder to later associate "anticipatory fear" in high-stakes situations with the second stimulus.* * **Blocking effect**: When a conditioned stimulus (CS1) already predicts the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), a second stimulus (CS2) added to the pairing does not become conditioned because CS1 “blocks” it. *For example, if a light (CS1) predicts food, adding a tone (CS2) does not condition the tone to food.*  * **Intervention overlap**: When secondary behaviors (or fluency-shaping strategies) are used to elicit the positive conditioned response (i.e., executing a speech plan), introducing additional interventions to weaken the association with the conditioned stimulus - may have reduced effectiveness. * **Priming**: Priming, a measure of learning within implicit memory, involves presenting a stimulus that activates unconscious associations, leading to a predictable response. For example, if PWS have stuttered their entire life, even a seemingly insignificant stimulus can trigger a chain reaction of primed stuttering associations, potentially transforming a neutral stimulus into a trigger. This contrasts with PWS closer to the early onset, where such associations are less deeply ingrained. * **Failure to move memories from working memory to long-term memory**: e.g., through insufficient **repetition**, lack of **meaningful significance** we attribute to information, or failure to **connect new information to prior knowledge**—regarding the fine-tuning of the release threshold.