Abstract

BECERRA, Sebastián A.  and  PINTO, Jorge A.. Contextual control in habituation: Diminution and potentiation of the startle response in humans. Rev Arg Cs Comp. [online]. 2019, vol.11, n.3, pp.10-18.  Epub July 17, 2019. ISSN 1852-4206.

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.

Keywords : Habituation; context; startle; potentiation; sensitization.

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