Definition
Habituation is a decrement in responding that results from repeated presentations of an initially novel stimulus in the absence of sensory adaptation and motor fatigue. Experimentally, habituation can be distinguished from sensory adaptation or motor fatigue by the demonstration of dishabituation or stimulus specificity (i.e., the response still occurs to other stimuli). Habituation is considered to be the simplest form of learning. More specifically, habituation refers to a nonassociative form of learning insofar because it occurs in the absence of any contingency associated with the stimulus. Habituation is a prerequisite to selective attention; in the absence of habituation, an organism would continue to respond to all stimuli depending upon their inherent characteristics.
Characteristics of Habituation
As detailed elsewhere (Thompson and Spencer 1966; Rankin et al. 2009), habituation is a general phenomenon that can be observed across species, stimulus modalities, and...
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Geyer, M.A. (2014). Habituation. In: Stolerman, I., Price, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_342-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_342-2
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