researchers also use habituation and dishabituation procedures in the laboratory to study the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of human infants. the presentation of a visual stimulus to an infant elicits looking behavior that habituates with repeated presentations of the stimulus. when changes to the habituated stimulus are made (or a new stimulus is introduced), the looking behavior returns (dishabituates). a recent fmri study revealed that the presentation of a dishabituating stimulus has an observable, physical effect upon the brain. in one study the mental spatial representations of infants were assessed using the phenomenon of dishabituation. infants were presented repeatedly with an object in the same position on a table. once the infants habituated to the object (i.e., spent less time looking at it) either the object was spatially moved while the infant remained at the same place near the table or the object was left in the same place but the infant was moved to the opposite side of the table. in both cases the spatial relationship between the object and the infant had changed, but only in the former case did the object itself move. would the infants know the difference? or would they treat both cases as if the object itself moved? the results revealed a return of looking behavior (dishabituation) when the object's position was changed, but not when the infant's position was changed. dishabituation indicates that infants perceived a significant change in the stimulus. therefore, the infants understood when the object itself moved and when it did not. only when the object itself moved were they interested in it again (dishabituation). when the object remained in the same position as before it was perceived as the same old boring thing (habituation). in general, habituation/dishabituation procedures help researchers determine the way infants perceive their environments.