Habituation is the fundamental property that the efficiency of neural cells diminishes over repeated stimulation. A model for how habituation influences episodic tests is suggested. During encoding or presentation of stimuli, habituation causes changes in activity, which influences the degree of synaptic plasticity. Fast habituation occurs during the short time intervals of presentation of single items and slow habituation during long lime intervals over the presentation of a list if items. Item habitation causes more efficient encoding at the beginning of the presentation of an item, whereas list habituation improves encoding at the beginning of the lists as seen in the primacy effect. The rate of habitation increases with the frequency of items. The habituation model makes specific predictions of how performance depends on study time, serial position, and frequency of items. The model is supported by a set of experimental data.
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