Contextual control in habituation: Diminution and potentiation of the startle response in humans.

The study examines the effects of context change on the habituation of the startle response in humans. In Experiment 1 the startle response was measured in three phases: pre-test, habituation, and post-test. For one group, the phases occurred in the same context, while for another, the habituation p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Becerra Cespedes, Sebastian Agustin, Pinto Pinto, Jorge Andres
Format: Online
Language:spa
Published: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/racc/article/view/23305
Description
Summary:The study examines the effects of context change on the habituation of the startle response in humans. In Experiment 1 the startle response was measured in three phases: pre-test, habituation, and post-test. For one group, the phases occurred in the same context, while for another, the habituation phase occurred in a different context. The results indicated that the different group had a more marked decrease between the pre-test and post-test than the same group. In Experiment 2, the same design was replicated, and the same results were obtained as in Experiment 1, although a different stimulus was used in the pre-test and post-test. Although the results are not statistically conclusive, they suggest that the context could be acquiring long-term potentiating properties that reduce the level of decrement that would be observed if only a habituation process existed.