Habituation and Novelty Responsiveness

Habituation is one of the most basic forms of implicit learning for many organisms—including humans. Habituation is a process of learning where repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to decreased responding. For example, when the sea slug (Aplysia) is lightly touched, it will quickly withdraw its gill; however, it withdraws its gill more slowly with each successive touch. Habituation differs from sensory adaption where sensory adaptation refers to the fact that the organism no longer perceives, or notices, the stimulus. Habituation, within the context of learning, also involves dishabituation, which occurs after the organism has become habituated to a specific stimulus or event, the event is subsequently changed, and the organism has an increased response to the now changed stimulus. This increase in responding, or ...