Extinction: Gradual cessation of activity due to removal of essential ingredient. Thus, fire is extinguished because of a lack of air, dinosaurs became extinguished because of lack of food, and behavior is extinguished because of a lack of reinforcement.
Extinction represents an enlightened approach to behavioral control, where instead of whacking a misbehaving child/adult/dog, you simply ignore the behavior and allow it to extinguish for want of attention or reinforcement. But as one suffers the wait for behavior to extinguish, a related behavioral control technique comes to mind, namely the Chinese water torture.
