Abstract
In three experiments, short-term habituation (STH) and long-term habituation (LTH) of the acoustic startle response (ASR) were assessed as a function of the rise time of the startle-inducing stimulus. In Experiment 1, presentations of a 300-msec rise time stimulus (RTS) produced neither a startle response nor response decrement to a 0.4-msec RTS when switched to that stimulus within a session (STH). When tested over days (LTH) training with the 300-msec RTS produced significant response decrements to the 0.4-msec RTS. Stimulus-induced freezing and vocalization were inversely related to rise time, and these emotional responses habituated over days. Experiment 2 showed that STH was inversely related to the rise time of the training stimulus, not simply to stimulus change. Experiment 3 replicated the LTH results of Experiment 1. These data show that STH of ASR is inversely related to stimulus rise time, whereas LTH is relatively independent of rise time.
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