Habituation, Its Retention, and Dishabituation of Multiple Behaviors in Chinchillas.

Habituation and dishabituation were studied in ten adult chinchillas. Head-shake responses HSRs, basal respiration, and struggle activity during restraint all displayed substantial within-session decrement which was retained significantly after 24 hr. The HSR exhibited short-term sensitization as well as long-term habituation. The latter occurred in spite of the fact that no overhabituation was allowed. An extraneous noise-impact stimulus produced dishabituation of basal respiration and struggle activity but not HSRs, suggesting differential sensitivity to concurrent stimulation between response systems. It was concluded that long-term habituation of the chinchillas HSR is not dependent upon overhabituation effects. The combined results indicate that habituation occurred independently in the different response systems and, thus, support a multiprocess interpretation of habituation. Modified author abstract