A common example of the partial reinforcement extinction effect appears in dysfunctional romantic relationships when one partner behaves badly (perhaps even abusively) toward the other, but not consistently enough or predictably enough to lead the other partner to leave the relationship. Indeed, because the first partner sometimes–but unpredictably–behaves in a loving, supportive way, the other partner keeps “hanging onto” the relationship in the hope that there will eventually be more good times than bad times. We know of one highly intelligent, educated professional woman whose husband’s unpredictable bad moods and emotionally abusive actions left her constantly uncertain about what each day would bring and how she might forestall his misbehavior. It took 12 years for her to recognize that the good times were never going to outnumber the bad times, at which time she decided to divorce. 

A study at this site suggests that for younger people reinforcement is more helpful to learning when their behavior leads to a personal benefit, but that in older people reinforcement has greater effects when their behavior helps someone else.

The 15-minute video at this link debunks the idea of so-called learning styles, shows that they are actually just preferences, and presents informal and formal evidence for a lack of relationship between these styles and learning outcomes.

Blogger Mark Frauenfelder recently provided the following example of how classical conditioning might create problems for people who urinate while showering:
“Pelvic floor therapist Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, who has a doctorate in physical therapy, says peeing in the shower is a bad idea, even though a recent survey revealed that 76% percent of people like to do it.

“Your bladder relies on signals it gets both from the stretch of the bladder walls as it fills, as well as signals from the brain which let it know when to contract to urinate,” she told Buzzfeed. “We want to avoid training our bladder to associate certain signals with the urge to pee. In this case, peeing in the shower associates the sound of running water with urination or with submersion in water. This can often transition into being triggered by other sounds of running water (like when you’re running the faucet to wash your hands or the dishes) or when you’re in bodies of water.”

A professor who used a microphone while teaching a large class had the unfortunate habit of occasionally walking in front of the amplifier’s speaker, which resulted was a loud screeching sound (US). The first time this happened, the students were startled (UR), and over time, whenever the professor even approached the speaker, many of them had a startle reaction (CR).