PS261 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Supernormal Stimulus, Dual Process Theory, Reflex Arc
Document Summary
Much behaviour is elicited, its simplest form being reflexive behaviour. Elicited behaviour is subject to modification through experience and can either increase or decrease through the activation of habituation and sensitization mechanisms. You are likely to eat more if you are eating food with varied flavours than if your meal consists of one flavour. If attention is diverted from the taste presentations, people show less habituation to the flavour. Sensitization has been examined most extensively in the defensize behaviour system; fear potentiates the startle response. A reflex involves two closely related events: eliciting stimulus + corresponding response that r linked. In vertebrates (inc humans) simple reflexes are mediated by 3 neurons, reflex arc: sensory/afferent: transmits sensory message into spinal cord, interneuron: impulse relayed through this, motor/efferent: activate muscles involved in reflex response. Response sequences that are typical of a particular species. The few essential features necessary to elicit a response are called the sign/releasing stimulus.
