Seeing or recognizing a stimulus elicits a response (e.g. seeing a picture of a classmate brings up a nostalgic emotion). However, there's such a concept of extinction of that response.
Encountering something for the first time elicits the biggest reponse. Each subsequent encounter elicits a smaller one. It diminishes.
This then means that people need novel experiences to stay engaged. I.e. people won't experience the same engagement when re-watching a movie (and much less when re-watching for the 3rd time).
Because Information encoded in long-term memory are remembered for a very long time, re-experiencing something even after long time doesn't lead to the same engagement.
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ID: 2021-1122-0724
References: Evans – Bottlenecks, ch. 9
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