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Overextinction and Test Stimulus Modality Determinants of Dishabituation
Author(s) -
Smith Barry D.,
Dickel Michael,
Deutsch Sara
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1978.tb01388.x
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , psychology , habituation , audiology , novelty , second order stimulus , expectancy theory , neutral stimulus , stimulus control , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , visual perception , perception , social psychology , neuroscience , medicine , nicotine
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of stimulus novelty, amount of overextinction exposure, and overextinction response frequency on phasic electrodermal test and dishabituation response amplitudes. Each subject underwent auditory habituation to a criterion and was then exposed to one of three overhabituation conditions: 0, 15, or 30 trials. The last trial of overhabituation was followed by either a dissimilar auditory stimulus or a visual stimulus, which was in turn followed by a repetition of the standard stimulus. Results showed that the intermodal test stimulus produced larger phasic test and dishabituation responses than the intramodal stimulus. The discrepancy in amplitude between the dishabituation response to the auditory stimulus and that to the visual stimulus was reduced by greater overextinction exposure. Results did not provide clearcut support for either the expectancy hypothesis of Sokolov (1963) or the generalization hypothesis of Thompson and Spencer (1966). Additional findings showed that high frequency overextinction responders gave test responses of greater amplitude than low frequency responders.