habituation

habituation, the waning of an animal’s behavioral response to a stimulus, as a result of a lack of reinforcement during continual exposure to the stimulus. It is usually considered to be a form of learning involving the elimination of behaviours that are not needed by the animal. Habituation may be separated from most other forms of decreased response (not including changes caused by maturation or seasonal cycles) on the basis of permanence; the habituated animal does not resume its earlier reaction to the stimulus after a period of nonstimulation, or, if the normal reaction is resumed, it wanes, on reexposure to the stimulus, more quickly than before. In the latter case, repeated interruptions and resumptions of the stimulus are followed by increasingly rapid decreases in response, and eventually the stimulus elicits no response. Vital responses (e.g., flight from a predator) cannot be truly habituated, although a temporary waning of the response may occur.