habituacji

Habituacja is a fundamental form of non-associative learning where an organism decreases its response to a stimulus after repeated exposure. This happens when the stimulus is neither rewarding nor punishing, and is considered to be of little significance. The organism essentially learns to ignore the stimulus as it becomes familiar and predictable. A common example is the diminished startle response to a recurring loud noise that has no consequence. Initially, the noise might cause a strong reaction, but with repeated, harmless presentations, the reaction weakens. Habituation is a very basic form of learning, observed across a wide range of species, from simple invertebrates to humans. It plays a crucial role in filtering out irrelevant sensory information, allowing organisms to focus their attention and resources on more important stimuli. This process is distinct from sensory adaptation, which occurs within the sensory receptors themselves, and from extinction, which involves the unlearning of a previously learned association. The key characteristic of habituation is the progressive reduction in the magnitude or frequency of a response over repeated presentations of the same stimulus.