General-process theories of motivation revisited: The role of habituation

The authors propose that the goal objects of motivated behaviors serve as reinforcers. Animals sensitize and then habituate to these reinforcers with repeated contact, altering their ability to control behavior. Several characteristics of motivation are consistent with this idea. Motivated behaviors decrease in strength with contact with the goal (habituation) and increase in strength in the absence of the goal (spontaneous recovery). They may increase in strength with initial contact with the goal (sensitization precedes habituation), with the presentation of irrelevant stimuli (sensitization), with changes in the goal (stimulus specificity), and with the presentation of dishabituators (dishabituation). The present idea is not a complete description of motivation. Habituation is only one among many contributors to its control.