What is habituation?
Habituation is the phenomenon that occurs when several startle probes areprovided in quick succession. The body tends to react strongly to the first one, and will continue to respond, though with less intensity, to subsequent probes. After a certain amount of stimuli, however (which varies fromsubject to subject), the body will stop responding to the startle probes, and the characteristic rise in GSR will cease to occur. However, if the subject is allowed to recover for a while, the startle reflex will become reactivated. The habituation response has been noted to have a very different characteristic in certain categories of schizophrenics.
