One becomes accustomed to repeated exposures, even for a novel event. In the present study, we investigated how predictability affects habituation to novelty by applying a mathematical model of arousal that we previously developed, and through the use of psychophysiological experiments to test the model’s prediction. We formalized habituation to novelty as a decrement in Kullback-Leibler divergence from Bayesian prior to posterior (i.e., information gain) representing arousal evoked from a novel event through Bayesian update. The model predicted an interaction effect between initial uncertainty and initial prediction error (i.e., predictability) on habituation to novelty: the greater the initial uncertainty, the faster the decrease in information gain (i.e., the sooner habituation occurs). This prediction was supported by experimental results using subjective reports of surprise and event-related potential (P300) evoked by visual-auditory incongruity. Our findings suggest that in highly uncertain situations, repeated exposure to stimuli can enhance habituation to novel stimuli.
Novelty is an important factor of creativity in product design. Acceptance of novelty, however, depends on one's emotions. Raymond Loewy, a pioneer of industrial design, defined a broader term between attraction of novelty and fear of the unknown MAYA (Most advanced, yet acceptable), which is important for new designs that are widely accepted in society. Yanagisawa et al. (2019) developed a mathematical model of emotion dimensions associated with novelty such as arousal (surprise) and valence (positivity and negativity). The model formalized arousal as Bayesian information gain and valence as a function of arousal based on Berlyne's arousal potential theory. On the one hand, people get used to novelty by repeated exposure. This so-called desensitization to novelty is an important factor to consider in the design of long-term products experience. In this paper, we proposed a mathematical model of desensitization to novelty based on the emotion dimension model. We formalized the desensitization as a decrement of information gained from a novel event through Bayesian update. We derived the information gained from repeated exposure of a novel stimulus as a function of three parameters: initial prediction error, initial uncertainty and noise of sensory stimulus. With the proposed model, we found an interaction effect of initial prediction error and initial uncertainty on desensitization (decrement of information gain). Furthermore, we demonstrated that a range of positive emotions on prediction errors shifted towards more novel by repeated novelty exposure. The experimental results of previous studies supported this simulation results.
One becomes accustomed to repeated exposures, even for a novel event. In the present study, we investigated how predictability affects habituation to novelty by applying a mathematical model of arousal that we previously developed, and conducted a psychophysiological experiment to test the model prediction. We formalized habituation to novelty as a decrement in Kullback-Leibler divergence from Bayesian prior to posterior (i.e., information gain) representing arousal evoked from a novel event through Bayesian update. The model predicted an interaction effect between initial uncertainty and initial prediction error (i.e., predictability) on habituation to novelty: The greater the initial uncertainty, the faster the information gain decreases (i.e., the sooner one is habituated). Experimental results using subjective reports of surprise and event-related potential (P300) evoked by visual-auditory incongruity supported the model prediction. Our findings suggest that in highly uncertain situations, repeated exposure to stimuli may enhance habituation to novel stimuli.
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