Awareness, a form of pre-associative learning

In a previous article, we discussed pre-associative learning as the mechanism that species use to respond to environmental stimuli and focus on the habituation process.

On this occasion, we will talk about the second type of pre-associative learning: awareness.

What is awareness?

We understood habituation as the decrease in response of an organism to a stimulus by continuous presentation. Awareness-raising is the opposite process, since it consists of increasing the response of an organism to a stimulus by the mere presentation of it. That is, reaching a state of increasing activation when receiving a type of stimulus.

For us to understand each other, the most representative case is the hated “beep-beep” of the alarm clock, which when it rings, deeply alters us. The tantrums of a child, the sound of the ambulance, the screams... They are environmental stimuli to which people tend to overreact, so it is said that we are sensitized to them. It is easy to become sensitive to the stimuli mentioned above, as they are very disturbing stimuli.

The greater the intensity of the stimulus, the greater the ease of sensitization to this.

When sensitization does not depend on intensity

There are, however, a series of stimuli that are not characterized by being intense and yet we are still sensitized to them. A good example of this are those things that we say that give us “grimaces”, which can be very particular like touching the hair when wet, crunching of bones or more spread like scratching the board with fingernails or chewing paper silver.

In general terms, when someone is in a state of high activation, the process of sensitization to environmental stimuli is accentuated. When we are angry, under a lot of stress or with a huge hangover on Sunday, any stimulus in the environment is capable of altering us and turning us into real beasts.

From now on, when we see someone very susceptible, we must understand that they are in a moment of high awareness of the environment in which he is, so it will be better to let him enjoy the silence.

Conjugating habituation and sensitization

The same stimulus can cause habituation or sensitization, depending on the intensity and the person's learning history.

For this reason, we act with surprise when an acquaintance of ours overreacts to stimuli that we have not even perceived. In these cases, we are used to them, while the other person is sensitized to the stimulus.

The duration of the process

In most cases sensitization only occurs in the short term, since in this way it allows to enter a state of alert before new and potentially dangerous phenomena.

However, it can become chronic, which is a problem. If its duration is very long in time, awareness can cause future stressors to appear of which there is a danger of being associated with other stimuli in the environment by classical conditioning and can lead to future phobias.

Concluding

Still, not everything that makes us react is bad. Going down the street and automatically recognize faces of acquaintances, or receive caresses and contact from someone to who we wish we found more and more pleasant, makes us reconcile with this mechanism inherited from the evolution.

It is necessary to understand that this process is highly adaptive, since it allows us to focus our attention on stimuli that could endanger us. However, we no longer live in caves or are surrounded by predators so in a society advanced, this learning mechanism present in all species, often plays in our against.