Habituation (Exam 1) Flashcards
Habituation
decrease in the strength or occurrence of a behavior after repeated exposure to the stimuli that produce that behavior
Cumulative Stimulus Specific
Sensitization
conditioned responding to certain stimuli
Not stimulus-specific
Perceptual Learning
process by which the ability of sensory systems to respond to stimuli is improved through experience
- Learning in which experiences with a set of stimuli make it easier to distinguish those stimuli
- greater ability to distinguish between similar inputs
Acoustic startle reflex
defensive response to loud, unexpected noises which results in jumping and freezing.
Orienting response
organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus
* fixation time: duration of staring
* stimulus-specific: pertaining to a specific event
Dishabituation
a renewal of a response, previously habituated, that occurs when the organism is presented with a novel stimulus
How rapidly a response habituates depends on:
- how startling/arousing the stimuli is
- the number of times it is expected
- length of time between repeated exposures
Learning curve
rate of progress in gaining learning, skill, or experience (in this case, habituation)
Massed
Exposures which are close together
Spaced
Exposures which are spread out
Short-term habituation
Habituation which lasts seconds
Long-term habituation
Habituation that lasts for an extended period of time
Spontaneous Recovery
Reappearance (or increase in strength) of a previously habituated response after a short of no stimulus presentation
General features of Sensitization
Phenomenon in which a salient stimulus (such as electric shock) temporarily increases the strength of responses to other stimuli (several exposures or just one depending on the arousal and state of mood.)
Electrodermal activity (EDA)q
fluctuations in the electrical properties of a person’s skin that are a consequence of activity in the peripheral nervous system.
Pulse inhibition
tuning out of a previously encountered response (similar to habituation)
- the initial weak stimulus can affect responding to a wide range of subsequent stimuli (including stimulation from other modalities)
- A single presentation of a weak stimulus can produce an effect
Desentization
the process by which past experiences reduce responses to a wide range of related stimuli
Dual process theory
theory that habituation and sensitization are independent of each other but operate in parallel
Habituation and Senstization
processes occur in response to every stimulus
The summation of these two independent processes determines the strength of responding.
The processes change over time [dependent on stimulus if boring (habituation) or arousing (sensitization)]
Opponent process theory
two independent prostheses combined
- Scary ——> Fear
- Rebound ——> Exhilaration
Repetition likely:
* weakens the initial fear response * strengthens rebound response
Two distinguishing features of opponent process theory
- the rebound is directly triggered by the initial emotional response
- both underlying processes are associated with emotional arousal
Novel object recognition task
task in which an organism’s detection of a response to unfamiliar objects during exploratory behavior are used to measure its memories of past experiences with these objects.