The effects of instructions and an engaging visual task on habituation to loud tones: An evaluation of an alternative to the traditional habituation paradigm

The effects of ambiguous instructions and instructions to specifically ignore or attend to stimuli on electrodermal habituation were examined in 88 volunteers who were evenly divided among four groups. The subjects were exposed to 17 105-dB tones. Subjects in three of the groups watched a videotape of an old silent movie. Those in the “Ignore” group were exhorted to immerse themselves in the movie and ignore the tones. “Attend” subjects were told to count the tones and be certain that they all sounded the same. In the two neutral groups, only one of which saw the movie, subjects were told simply that they would hear some tones. “Ignore” subjects responded less often, habituated at a faster rate, and rated the tones as less loud than did subjects in the other groups. The results confirmed our previous findings that ignore instructions coupled with a distracting task reduce electrodermal reactivity to loud task-irrelevant stimuli.