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OPERANT CONDITIONING OF HEART RATE SLOWING
Author(s) -
Engel Bernard T.,
Hansen Stephen P.
Publication year - 1966
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.1469-8986.1966.tb02693.x
Subject(s) - operant conditioning , psychology , reinforcement , conditioning , heart rate , heart beat , audiology , beat (acoustics) , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , blood pressure , statistics , physics , mathematics , acoustics
The purpose of this study was to see if heart rate (HR) slowing could be operantly conditioned. Ten experimental S s and five yoked‐control S s were studied. Experimental S s were positively reinforced for slowing their HR on a beat‐by‐beat basis, whereas yoked‐control S s were reinforced in a pattern based on the performance of paired experimental S s. The data showed that: some S s can be taught to slow their HR by means of an operant conditioning procedure; S s appear to learn better when they do not infer correctly what the response is that they are controlling; the conditioned HR response is apparently not mediated by changes in breathing; and reinforcement, per se, is not adequate to lower HR.