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Habituation
 
 
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In psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
, habituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in behavioral
Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
 response
Response

A response is the following:* Often a response is the result of a stimulus.* In data transmission, a response is the content of the control field of a response frame advising the primary station concerning the processing by the secondary station of one or more command frames....
 to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration
Duration

A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time. Duration is a property of tone that becomes one of the bases rhythm or an quantity of time or a particular time Interval ....
 of time
Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
.

tuation is very similar to acclimation, in that repetition of certain behaviors that are rewarding to a life form will likely be continued, or ingrained in a habitual manner. For example, for all life forms on Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
, obtaining life-sustaining matter
Matter

In common usage, matter is anything that has both mass and volume . A more rigorous definition is used in science: matter is what atoms and molecules are made of....
 that exists externally from those beings, such as food, water and shelter, is a habituated behavior.






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In psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
, habituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in behavioral
Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
 response
Response

A response is the following:* Often a response is the result of a stimulus.* In data transmission, a response is the content of the control field of a response frame advising the primary station concerning the processing by the secondary station of one or more command frames....
 to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration
Duration

A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time. Duration is a property of tone that becomes one of the bases rhythm or an quantity of time or a particular time Interval ....
 of time
Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
.

Background

Habituation is very similar to acclimation, in that repetition of certain behaviors that are rewarding to a life form will likely be continued, or ingrained in a habitual manner. For example, for all life forms on Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
, obtaining life-sustaining matter
Matter

In common usage, matter is anything that has both mass and volume . A more rigorous definition is used in science: matter is what atoms and molecules are made of....
 that exists externally from those beings, such as food, water and shelter, is a habituated behavior. The learning underlying habituation is a fundamental or basic process of biological systems and does not require conscious motivation or awareness to occur. Indeed, without habituation we would be unable to distinguish meaningful information from the background, unchanging information. Habituation has been shown in essentially every species of animal, including the large protozoan Stentor coeruleus
Stentor Coeruleus

Stentor coeruleus belongs to the Stentoridae family which is characterized by being a very large ciliate that measures 0.5 to 2 millimetres when fully extended....
.

Psychological significance in humans

Habituation need not be conscious - for example, a short time after a human dresses in clothing, the stimulus clothing
Clothing

A feature of all human societies, except perhaps the most primitive, is the wearing of clothing or clothes, especially in public. The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the weather....
 creates disappears from our nervous systems and we become unaware of it. In this way, habituation is used to ignore any continual stimulus, presumably because changes in stimulus level are normally far more important than absolute levels of stimulation. This sort of habituation can occur through neural adaptation
Neural adaptation

Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a change over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant Stimulus . It is usually perception as a change in the stimulus....
 in sensory nerves themselves and through negative feedback
Negative feedback

Negative feedback feeds part of a system's output, inverted, into the system's input; generally with the result that fluctuations are attenuated....
 from the brain to peripheral sensory organs.

Habituation is frequently used in testing psychological phenomena. Both adults and infants gaze lesser at a particular visual stimulus the longer it is presented. The amount of time spent looking at a new stimulus after habituation to the initial stimulus indicates the effective similarity of the two stimuli. It is also used to discover the resolution of perceptual systems. For instance, by habituating someone to one stimulus, and then observing responses to similar ones, one can detect the smallest degree of difference that is detectable.

Dishabituation is when a second stimulus is presented in unison with a primary stimulus, and may briefly increase habituated response toward the primary stimulus until an organism distinguishes
Distinguish

In law, to distinguish a Legal case means to compare the facts of the case before the court from the facts of a case of precedent where there is an apparent similarity....
, or discriminates the differences between two different stimuli. Dishabituation has been demonstrated as being inherently different than psychological sensitization
Sensitization

Sensitization is an example of non-associative learning in which the progressive amplification of a response follows repeated administrations of a stimulation....
.

See also

  • Banner blindness
    Banner blindness

    Banner blindness is a phenomenon in web usability where visitors on a website ignore banner-like information.The term "banner blindness" was coined by Benway and Lane as a result of website usability tests where a majority of the test subjects either consciously or unconsciously ignored information that was presented in banners....
  • Habit
    Habit (psychology)

    Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, tend to occur subconsciously, without directly thinking Consciousness about them. Habitual behavior sometimes goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting them, because it is often unnecessary to engage in self-analysis when undertaking in routine tasks....
  • Neural adaptation
    Neural adaptation

    Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a change over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant Stimulus . It is usually perception as a change in the stimulus....


External links

  • Usabilityfirst.com.. Retrieved August 29, 2008.