HEART RATE, SKIN CONDUCTANCE, AND INTENSITY RATINGS DURING EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED ANXIETY: HABITUATION WITHIN AND AMONG DAYS

Twenty Ss were divided into two groups according to whether they received as a noxious stimulus in a count-up a mild shock or a punishing sound. Trials were varied over as well as within days. Among the findings: (1) There was considerable evidence of response fractionation among and within measures of heart rate, skin conductance, and rated stimulus intensity. (2) Trials over days exhibited an incubation effect for shock in the skin conductance data, a displacement of maximum heart rate reactivity toward the beginning of the time dimension, and a greater degree of habituation of the rated intensity of the shock stimulus than of the sound stimulus. It was concluded that habituation and incubation reflect cognitive processes, that the forward displacement of heart rate is the result of a centrally mediated inhibitory process, and that the gradient of such inhibition is steeper than the gradient of anxiety.