Cardiac responses: stability of principal components and individual differences.

Cardiac response: determinants of conditioning.

Heart rate and GSR concomitants of vigilance and arousal.

Ronald S. Wilson (1933-1986).

Design and analysis of experiments in psychology and education

Heart-rate change as a component of the orienting response.

Higher Nervous Functions: The Orienting Reflex

R e s p o n s e s of t h e central and per ipheral s t ruc tures of t h e autonomic nervous sys tem a r e ubiquitous. One cannot s t imula te t h e organism, however innocuously, without producing some evidence of dis turbance of autonomic equilibrium. T h i s fact is s t i l l not thoroughly integrated with our thinking about psychological matters, but t h e real izat ion is growing that res t r ic t ing considerat ion of t h e autonomic nervous sys tem t o a chapter on “emotions” in our t e x t s and rev iews is a n underemphasis, or a t l e a s t a misemphasis. A brief enumeration of some of t h e re la t ionships found or sugges ted may s e r v e t o i l lus t ra te t h e s c o p e and importance of t h e measurement of autonomic nervous sys tem functions. T h e ac t iv i ty of t h e autonomic nervous sys tem is related t o t h e adequacy of sensory , sensorimotor, and perceptual behavior (E. Cal loway and S. V. Thompson, 1953; N. Kleitman, S. Titelbaum, and P. Fe iveson , 1938; A. Trehub, 1954; J . J. Van Biervl ie t , 1894) and to t h e adequacy of t h e performance of skiI led behavior (T. A. Hussman, 1955). Measurements of autonomic r e s p o n s e s to t h e innocuous s t r e s s of mild e x e r c i s e (the Schneider tes t ) a r e re la ted to psychiatr ic s t a t u s (R. A. McFarland and J. H. Huddleson, 1936), t o “frustrat ion tolerance” (G. B. Strother and D. M. Cook, 1953) and t o individual diffe rences in t h e re la t ive frequency of reca l l of completed a n d incompleted t a s k s (T. M. Abel, 1938). Autonomic r e s p o n s e s to in jec t ions of epinephrine and of mecholyl ( the Funkens te in t e s t ) a r e re la ted t o recovery ra te under both psychotherapy and somatotherapies (E. Gellhorn, 1953; L. Alexander, 1955). R e s t i n g autonomic measurements a r e re la ted t o combat performance (M. A. Wenger, 1948). Autonomic r e s p o n s e s a r e being used t o eva lua te t h e e f f e c t s of psychotherapy (W. N. Thetford, 1952; 0. H. Mowrer, 1953) and t o s tudy t h e course of t h e therapeut ic interview (A. Di Mascio, R. Boyd, M. Greenblat t , and H. C. Solomon, 1955; R. Boyd and A. Di Mascio, 1954). T h e s e responses a r e being used in a n attempt t o unders tand t h e e f f e c t s of t h e new tranqui l izers s u c h a s chlorpromazine (R. A. Schneider, 1955). A s “ t h e voice of t h e unconscious” and t h e main medi-

Cardiac responses: stability of principal components and individual differences.

Citations

Cardiac response: determinants of conditioning.

Heart rate and GSR concomitants of vigilance and arousal.

Ronald S. Wilson (1933-1986).

References

Design and analysis of experiments in psychology and education

Heart-rate change as a component of the orienting response.

Higher Nervous Functions: The Orienting Reflex

The evaluation of autonomic responses: toward a general solution.

Psychophysiological approaches to the evaluation of psychotherapeutic process and outcome.