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habituation

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Also known as GO:0046959, psychophysiologic habituation, psychophysiological habituation, manolete, Habituation, Psychophysiologic

Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an organism's non-reinforced response to an inconsequential stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn that these have no consequences.

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Habituation
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~27 min read

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15 sections
Contents
  • Drug habituation
  • Characteristics
  • Biological mechanisms
  • Neuroimaging
  • Debate about learning-status
  • Theories
  • Stimulus-model comparator theory
  • Dual-process theory
  • Examples of the habituation process in animals and humans
  • Relevance to neuropsychiatry
  • Uses and challenges of the habituation procedure
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an organism's non-reinforced response to an inconsequential stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn that these have no consequences.

Habituation can occur in responses that habituate include those that involve an entire organism or specific biological component systems of an organism. The broad ubiquity of habituation across all forms of life has led to it being called "the simplest, most universal form of learning...as fundamental a characteristic of life as DNA". Functionally, habituation is thought to free up cognitive resources for other stimuli that are associated with biologically important events by diminishing the response to inconsequential stimuli.

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