When kathy is in the shower and someone flushes the toilet, the water turns hot and she gets burned. soon, kathy becomes classically conditioned to fear the toilet flushing when she is in the shower. when kathy visits her parents she does not get burned when someone flushes the toilet while she is in the shower. when she returns home and hears the toilet flush while in the shower, kathy immediately feels a surge of fear. this example best illustrates the fact that extinction is?

The correct answer is:  a form of learning that inhibits, not deletes, what is learned. 

When it comes to the theory of classical conditioning, extinction refers to when a previously learned behavior disappears when reinforcement stops occurring. In this instance, when Kathy visits her parents, and does not get burned when someone flushes the toilet while she is in the shower, the reinforcement stops occurring. However, when she returns home and hears the toilet flush while in the shower, Kathy immediately feels a surge of fear. This demonstrates that extinction (due to lack of reinforcement) might inhibit, but does not completely delete learned behavioral responses.