Habituation

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-08-03 10:38 AM CDST

• Habituation is one of the simplest forms of learning and consists of NOT making a response to repetitively presented stimulus.
  • Examples include the motor responses such as
    • a dog not flicking its ear while sleeping while someone lightly strokes the dog's ear
    • people who live near the railroad not responding to the sounds of nightly regularly passing trains,
    • buying a new, loud wall clock and eventually habituating to the noise it makes.

  • Stimuli which lead to habituation are typically low in intensity and repetitive.
  • But, habituation can occur to stimuli without those characteristics as well.
  • For instance, a hunting dog can become habituated to the loud and irregularly spaced sound of his hunter's gun.
• Habituation is a form of non-associative learning, meaning that only one stimulus is being presented.
• Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning (which follow in this chapter) are each examples of associative learning (two or more stimuli needed)