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AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING OF HEART RATE IN HUMANS
Author(s) -
Frazier Thomas W.
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.tb02694.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stimulus (psychology) , heart rate , stimulus control , aversive stimulus , developmental psychology , audiology , contingency , conditioning , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , medicine , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , blood pressure , nicotine
An avoidance conditioning technique was employed to obtain external control over heart rate. A contingency was set up between heart‐rate maintenance and punishment avoidance. During periods of time signified by a visual stimulus, punishments were dispensed when the total number of beats per minute decreased from the previous minute's total. Subjects ( S s) performed an instrument‐panel‐monitoring task without awareness of the biological avoidance contingency, but they were correctly informed that shocks were available only when the visual stimulus was present. After punishments had been dispensed on the basis of the contingency for several periods, punishment was discontinued and the visual stimulus was used alone as a conditioned aversive stimulus, in order to shape predetermined response patterns. Results included: clear evidence of heart‐rate control over all S s after training periods; maintenance of heart‐rate control over continuous 40‐min periods through continuous presentation of the visual stimulus; and shaping and replication of three prespecified response patterns. These findings demonstrate that punishment avoidance contingencies can be used to impose effective control over cardiovascular functioning.