Spontaneous recovery
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In classical conditioning, spontaneous recovery or resurgence in operant conditioning, is the reemergence of a conditioned response after the conditioning stimulus has been extinguished. Spontaneous recoveries tend to yield somewhat muted responses in which extinction occurs more readily.
For example, a dog's conditioned response of salivating to a bell will often, after it has been extinguished, reappear when the dog later hears the sound of a bell. This phenomenon is known as "spontaneous recovery."
Spontaneous recovery helps explain why it is so hard to overcome drug addictions. For example, cocaine addicts who are thought to be "cured" can experience an irresistible impulse to use the drug again if they are subsequently confronted by a stimulus with strong connections to the drug, such as a white powder (O'Brien et al., 1992; Drummond et al., 1995; DiCano & Everitt, 2002).
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