“Habituation” is one of those scientific terms that sounds too technical for most people to pay attention to.
Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines habituation: “decrease in responsiveness upon repeated exposure to a stimulus.”
Let’s break this down. “Decrease in responsiveness” means you stop paying attention to something. You may stop seeing it, feeling it, or hearing it. “Repeated exposure to a stimulus” means that the same thing is happening over and over.
Unfortunately, having the same thing happen over and over is exactly the way most people try to learn new skills and build mastery. You’ve probably heard that repetition is important in building a new skill, and this is totally true. However, if you’re mindlessly repeating the same action over and over, your brain – because of this concept of habituation – will stop paying attention to what you’re doing!
After a while, repetition becomes a waste of time since you’re no longer being responsive the activity.
You want to figure out just how much repetition you can use to maximize your learning. Not enough repetition, and you don’t learn the skill effectively. Too much repetition and you no longer get any positive results from it.
One way to get more out of repetition, and avoid the perils of habituation, is to focus on only one aspect of your skill at a time. If you’re doing a repetitive task to master a skill, focus on one thing for five or so repetitions, then switch to focusing on something else for another few repetitions. Keep up this process. Effectively, you’re focusing on a different aspect of the “stimulus” and fooling your brain’s natural tendency to stop paying attention over time.
Don’t get me wrong. You absolutely need habituation to get through your day without going crazy. While you felt your socks as you put them on your feet this morning, you do not want to notice the feeling of those socks throughout the day. That would be distracting and terrible.
It’s just that you may find yourself losing your focus and not paying attention when you really, truly need to pay attention. Your brain will shut out things automatically if you don’t remind yourself to refocus and start paying attention again.
By knowing about habituation, you can learn information and master skills more effectively.
