Generalization of Habituation of Skin Conductance Responses to Multidimensional Sequences of Stimuli

This study presents a generalized approach to the problem of habituation to complex sequences of stimuli. Ninety‐five subjects were requested to choose one of four cards, showing a blue triangle (BT), a blue square (BS), a red triangle (RT), or a red square (RS). Subjects then heard a prerecorded sequence of the stimulus elements blue (B), red (R), triangle (T), and square (S), in various predetermined orders. Skin conductance responses were recorded during stimulus presentations. Four theoretical models were formulated, and compared for their abilities to describe the habituation process in the present experiment. The models differ in how they define the stimulus categories within which habituation generalizes. The model which defines the stimulus categories by “chosen” versus “non chosen” elements gave the best fit to the data.