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HABITUATION OF THK ORIENTING RESPONSE IN ALERT AND DROWSY SUBJECTS
Author(s) -
McDonald David G.,
Johnson Laverni C.,
Hord David J.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1964.tb03231.x
Subject(s) - habituation , orienting response , psychology , audiology , skin conductance , heart rate , developmental psychology , neuroscience , blood pressure , medicine , biomedical engineering
Alert and drowsy subjects (by EEG criterion) were compared in two experiments for psychophysiological habituation of the orienting response. Subjects in Experiment I (N = 30) received 10 presentations of a doorbell‐type buzzer, and in Experiment II (N = 69) they received 10 presentations of a 500‐cps tone. Comparisons were made of: (I) galvanic skin response (GSR); (2) spontaneous GSRs between trials; (3) heart rate (HR) responses; (4) finger vasoconstriction responses; (5) finger temperature responses; and (0) respiration. Results showed that there were no differences between groups in GSR; however, the drowsy group showed consistently fewer spontaneous GSRs. Cardiovascular response measures of the drowsy groups showed consistently and significantly greater responses on the later trials and, therefore, no habituation of these responses. This finding was more consistent for HR than vasomotor response. In the discussion of these results, the authors were able to rule out several possible explanations, hence the reasons for this differential autonomic response are as yet unknown.