Recovery of habituation in infants.

Abstract On the basis of studies of habituation in animals it was predicted that infants would exhibit habituation of fixation time to a visual stimulus and recovery of fixation time over time. Thirty-two 4-month-old infants were given 10 familiarization trials with one stimulus followed by a retention interval and then presentation of both the familiar and a novel stimulus. Males but not females habituated their fixation time over trials and differentiated between the novel and familiar stimuli when the posthabituation interval was 15 sec, but neither males nor females did so when the interval was 5 min. Evidence for recovery to the familiar stimulus over 5 min was inconclusive due to possible effects of situational fatigue. The results were interpreted in terms of Sokolov's neuronal model of memory.

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