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Habituation in Infant Cognition

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Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning

Synonyms

Infant familiarization

Definition

Habituation refers to the gradual decrease in responsiveness due to repeated presentations of the same stimulus. Habituation is commonly used as a tool to demonstrate the cognitive abilities of infants and young children.

Theoretical Background

Historically, work by Robert Fantz in the 1950s and 1960s has been credited with sparking interest in the habituation methodology for use in examining infant perception and cognition. Fantz (1964) simultaneously presented two visual stimuli to infants, one of which was new or novel on each trial, and one of which remained unchanged. The amount of time infants looked to each stimulus on each trial was measured. Fantz reported that, over the course of ten successive trials, infants displayed progressively less visual fixation to the unchanging (familiar) stimulus and longer fixation to the novel stimulus, indicating that infants had habituated (although this specific term is not used by Fantz) to the...

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References

  • Baillargeon, R. (1987). Object permanence in 3.5- and 4.5-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 23, 655–664.

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  • Fantz, R. L. (1964). Visual experience in infants: Decreased attention to familiar patterns relative to novel ones. Science, 146, 668–670.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, 1349 Western Road, London, ON, N6G 1H3, Canada

    Dr. Christine D. Tsang

Authors
  1. Dr. Christine D. Tsang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christine D. Tsang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Education, University of Freiburg, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

    Norbert M. Seel

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Tsang, C.D. (2012). Habituation in Infant Cognition. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_401

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_401

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1427-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1428-6

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