Which statement best describes one way infants demonstrate learning related to habituation?

Which statement best describes one way infants demonstrate learning related to habituation?

• A. Decreased attention to a repeated stimulus
• B. Increased attention to a repeated stimulus
• C. No response to any stimulus
• D. Random movement when stimulated

Answer: (A)

Habituation is a basic learning process in infancy where the infant becomes less responsive to something they've seen or heard before. When a stimulus is presented repeatedly, the infant’s attention—often measured by looking time or engagement—usually decreases, signaling that the stimulus is familiar and no longer requires effort to process. This drop in responsiveness indicates learning: the infant recognizes the stimulus as known. If a new or different stimulus is introduced, attention typically increases again, showing the infant can discriminate the new from the old. So the statement that best describes this learning is a decrease in attention to a repeated stimulus. The other patterns—increasing attention to the same stimulus, no response to any stimulus, or random movement—do not capture the familiarization and discrimination process that habituation describes.

Habituation is a basic learning process in infancy where the infant becomes less responsive to something they've seen or heard before. When a stimulus is presented repeatedly, the infant’s attention—often measured by looking time or engagement—usually decreases, signaling that the stimulus is familiar and no longer requires effort to process. This drop in responsiveness indicates learning: the infant recognizes the stimulus as known. If a new or different stimulus is introduced, attention typically increases again, showing the infant can discriminate the new from the old. So the statement that best describes this learning is a decrease in attention to a repeated stimulus. The other patterns—increasing attention to the same stimulus, no response to any stimulus, or random movement—do not capture the familiarization and discrimination process that habituation describes.