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.
Neophobia
active avoidance of the object
Familiarity
perception of similarity that occurs when an event is repeated knowledge of something we have known before
Priming
phenomenon in which prior exposure to a stimulus can improve the ability to recognize that stimulus later
word-stem completion task
task in which participants were asked to fill in the blanks in a list of words (e.g., MOT) to produce the first word that comes to mind.
Examples:
bread, milk, juice, so_p
towel, shower, shampoo, so_p
Statistical learning
learning driven by repeated exposures to perceptual events that increase the familiarity and distinctiveness of these events.
Spatial learning
the acquisition of information about one’s surrounding
Other-race-effect
People are generally better at recognizing faces of their own race.
Harvard Project Implicit
Spacing effect
Refers to the memory advantages of distributing study time with breaks in between, as compared to massing or cramming study time into only one session, holding total study time constant
Recall
- Spaced - other words were provided between the two presentations of the same word
- Massed - immediate repetition of the same word
Gill-withdrawal reflex
a survival reaction in which the Aplysia retract their gills under the safety of the mantle
Habituation in Aplysia
- Initial light touch = gill-withdrawal
- repeated light touch = reflex becomes weaker
Synaptic depression
a reduction in synaptic transmission; a possible neural mechanism underlying habituation
Sensitization in Aplysia
- Electrical shock applied to the tail
- Aversive tail shock sensitizes subsequent responding
Homosynaptic
occurring in one synapse without affecting nearby synapses
Heterosynaptic
occurring in several nearby synapses simultaneously
Receptive field
range (or field) of physical stimuli that activates a single neuron
Homonculus
proportional topographical representation of the body parts on the somatosensory cortex
Cortical plasticity
the capacity to change cortical organization as result of experience
Cortical plasticity during development
repeated experiences shape the organization of the cortex during development, thus determining the perception of the world.
Cortical changes in adults after exposure
even in adulthood, repeated experiences can change our sensory perception, due to changes in the brain
Identifying places
some neurons fire when we wonder in one direction vs. another
place cells
a neuron that fires maximally when the organism enters a particular location within an environment
Head direction cells
cells that are shown to selectively fire when an animal is headed in a particular direction
Grid cells
cells that are shown to fire when an animal crosses through equal distances within an environment
Brain areas associated with declarative memory disorders
- Thalamus
- Hippocampus
- Rhinal cortex
- Amygdala
- Mamillary body
- Prefrontal cortex
- Basal forebrain
- Fornix
Recognizing familiar objects
navigation and identification of properties of objects
Rehabilitation after stroke
habituation gone wrong
Stroke
an event in which blood flow to some region of the brain stops or in which an artery ruptures causing neurons in affected region to die
Two types of strokes
- Hemorrhagic strokes - caused by blockage of one of the cerebral blood vessels
- Ischemic strokes - caused by blood vessel rupture and characterized by bleeding in the brain
Constraint-induced movement therapy
motor-rehabilitation technique in which unaffected limbs are restrained to increase usage of non-used limb
Repeated efforts
acquired ability to make distinctions between sensations
- Habituation increases the difficulties of learned non-use
- Perceptual learning processes help counteract reduced responses to weak stimuli by reorganizing cortical regions which support those stimuli
Sensitization to stress
- Contributes to Depression
- rumination on factors which lead to experience of symptoms
*can also contribute to anxiety disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder) - rumination on factors that lead them to repeat certain actions many times
Human-Machine Interfaces:
Regaining sensory modalities through perceptual learning
Sensory Prosthesis
A Mechanical device designed to supplemental or substitute for a faulty sensory modality such as vision or hearing; the device’s sensory detectors interface with brain areas that normally process those sensory inputs
Cochlear Implant
sensory prosthesis that directly stimulates auditory nerves to produce hearing sensations in deaf individuals
