Physiological response patterns during "intake" and "rejection" tasks

Two 2-min tasks, one requiring outer-directed attention (intake task), the other a mental arithmetic task (rejection task) were presented to 20 subjects. According to Lacey the distinguishing feature of the response to intake tasks are cardiac deceleration and blood pressure decreases. None of these responses was obtained. Some variables, however, were only affected by one of the tasks; the intake task led to a decreased hand (skin) blood flow and an increased hand vascular resistance, whereas a heart rate acceleration and increased forearm (muscle) blood flow and decreased forearm vascular resistance were observed during the rejection task. Blood pressure, respiration rate and skin conductance were similarly affected by the two tasks. Inconsistencies among previous studies of the response to the two types of tasks were discussed and found to be partially explained by methodological differences.