RATE OF HABITUATION AND THE LAW OF INITIAL VALUES

ABSTRACT The galvanic skin response (GSR) data of two experiments were analyzed in an attempt to determine the effects of tonic shifts in baseline conductance on apparent rate of habituation. The results of the first experiment indicated that rate of habituation is exaggerated when response measures which are not base‐independent are employed. The positive correlation found between habituation slope and an index of base‐level change in conductance was significantly reduced when autonomic lability scores (ALSs) were used. Thus, base‐corrected responses produced less steep habituation functions. The second experiment demonstrated that a tonic increase in conductance occurs to an intense auditory stimulus and that rate of habituation is consequently over‐estimated in comparison to that associated with repeated presentation of a mild stimulus.