PSYC 325 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Neophobia, Prepulse Inhibition, Electrodermal Activity
4 Jun 2018
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CH3 -1 Habituation, Sensitization, and familiarization (behavioral processes)
Habituation
- A decrease in the strength of occurence of a behavior due to repeated exposure to
the stimulus that produces the behavior
- Behaviorist approach: defines habituation as a decrease in behavior - don’t have
to care about rat’s feelings/ emotions
- Focusing on behavior allows objective standardized measurements (eg force
of startle)
■ Quantification
- Early strong responses, declining to later weak responses
- Acoustic startle reflex: a defensive response to a loud, unexpected noise
- Orienting response: an organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus
- Asymptote: relatively stable point after substantial training
■ Characteristics
- Ubiquitous
- It is found throughout the animal kingdom, and even some single-celled
organisms show habituation
- Across all organisms, similar way of how habituation works
- Avoid wasting time and energy
- Carry risks
1. Dishabituation
- A novel/ arousing stimulus can temporarily recover responses to the habituating stimulus
- Fades quickly
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2
- Eg a small spider → freak out → several trials → not freak out; A HUGE spider →
freak out → a small spider again → freak out again
- Eg Coolidge effect
2. Stimulus specificity
- Responses only decrease to the habituating stimulus
- For very similar stimuli, there can be some generalization
- Eg reactions can be generalized to other kind of spider
3. Spontaneous recovery
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
3
- Reappearance (or increase in strength) of a previously habituated response after a short
period of no stimulus presentation
- Time for recovery depends on several factors, such as
4. Short- and long-term forms
- More repetitions of the stimulus lead to longer-lasting habituation; with many repetitions,
effects can become relatively permanent
5. Spaced works better than massed
- Taking breaks between sessions of repeated stimuli makes habituation develop more
slowly but last much longer
- Massed (cramming, studying 5 chapters in one night), spaced (study one chapter
every week after lecture)
- If they are restarted after a relatively long break, the animals given massed
exposures are also more likely to show spontaneous recovery
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ch3 -1 habituation, sensitization, and familiarization (behavioral processes) A decrease in the strength of occurence of a behavior due to repeated exposure to the stimulus that produces the behavior. Behaviorist approach: defines habituation as a decrease in behavior - don"t have to care about rat"s feelings/ emotions. Focusing on behavior allows objective standardized measurements (eg force of startle) Early strong responses, declining to later weak responses. Acoustic startle reflex: a defensive response to a loud, unexpected noise. Orienting response: an organism"s innate reaction to a novel stimulus. Asymptote: relatively stable point after substantial training. It is found throughout the animal kingdom, and even some single-celled organisms show habituation. Across all organisms, similar way of how habituation works. A novel/ arousing stimulus can temporarily recover responses to the habituating stimulus. Eg a small spider freak out several trials not freak out; a huge spider freak out a small spider again freak out again. Responses only decrease to the habituating stimulus.
