Dominique had a car accident while driving over a bridge and thereafter developed an intense phobia of driving over bridges. In an effort to cure Dominique's phobia, a psychologist gradually motivated him to drive over bridges. After many sessions of having nonthreatening experiences while driving over bridges, Dominique's phobia was cured. This is an example of
A) habituationB) stimulus generalizationC) extinctionD) backward conditioning

The term "extinction" in psychology refers to the process of disappearing a response from an individual's repertoire. In the responding paradigm, extinction occurs when a conditioned stimulus (CS) stops eliciting a particular response (CR). Thus, the conditioned reflex response may disappear if the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the presence of the unconditioned stimulus, causing the eliciting effect of SC to cease to exist. An example of this was the technique that Dominique's psychologist used to help Dominique abandon her fear of bridges. Gradually Dominique's psychologist motivated her to pass the bridges until her fear passed.