Habituation contd

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Habituation (contd)

• Tuesday, 1/18/06

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From last time

• Parametric features of Habituation
• Frequency
• Spontaneous Recovery
• Repeated Habituations

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4. Spacing of Stimulus Repetitions

• The shorter the interval between stimulus
  presentations, the more quickly responding
  decreases.

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4. Spacing of Stimulus Repetitions

• Massed Exposure habituation occurs more
  quickly.
• Spaced Exposure habituation lasts longer - less
  spontaneous recovery.

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5. Dishabituation

• Habituation to a stimulus can be temporarily
  blocked by a novel stimulus.
• Introduction of a novel stimulus increases the OR
  to the original stimulus when the original is
  re-presented.

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6. Stimulus Generalization

• Habituation may spread to similar stimuli.
• The more similar the stimuli, the greater the
  degree of generalization.

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Why does habituation occur?

• Sensory adaptation?
• Probably not.

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Why does habituation occur?

• Cognitive / evolutionary explanation
• The orienting response is adaptive it has
  evolved to ensure that attention is given to
  important stimuli.

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• Processing of stimuli utilizes energy, and all
  organisms seek to conserve energy.

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• When a stimulus is not important, it is
  maladaptive to expend energy attending to the
  stimulus.

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• Regular occurrence of an irrelevant event creates
  an expectancy for the event.

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• Energy efficient organisms compare environmental
  events with expectancies
• If match No further processing
• If not Orienting Response

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Neuronal Model of HabituationSokolov (1963)
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• Missing stimulus effect when the absence of an
  expected stimulus provokes an OR.

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Take home message on habituation

• Habituation is an organisms way of minimizing
  cognitive effort while still responding to
  potentially harmful or helpful stimuli.

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Applications to daily life

• Perceptual learning being familiar with a
  stimulus facilitates future learning about the
  stimulus.
• Perceptual learning supports the philosophy
  underlying a liberal arts degree.

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• Mere exposure effect prior experience with a
  stimulus can lead to an affective preference for
  that stimulus.

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• Priming (perceptual fluency) occurs when
  presentation of one stimulus facilitates
  processing of another stimulus presented shortly
  thereafter that is the same or related.

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See you Thursday.