What is "spontaneous recovery"

Spontaneous recovery is a phenomenon of learning and memory that was first named and described by Pavlov in his studies of classical (Pavlovian) conditioning. In that context, it refers to the re-emergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a delay. Such a recovery of "lost" behaviors can be observed within a variety of domains, and the recovery of lost human memories is often of particular interest. This article summarizes research in a number of related areas.