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SKIN POTENTIAL, HEART RATE, AND THE SPAN OF IMMEDIATE MEMORY
Author(s) -
Thetford Paul E.,
Klemme Mary E.,
Spohn Herbert E.
Publication year - 1968
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.1469-8986.1968.tb02813.x
Subject(s) - psychology , tone (literature) , audiology , memory span , heart rate , life span , cognition , working memory , medicine , neuroscience , blood pressure , literature , art , gerontology
Relations between orienting response and span of immediate memory were studied by measuring skin potential responses (SPR) and heart rate (HR). Four conditions were studied by presenting letters in a tachistoscope and a 1000 cycle, 100 db tone simultaneous on some but not all trials. The conditions (15 S s in each) were: tone and letters for 10 trials, then letters alone for 10 trials; tone and letters for 20 trials; only letters for 10 trials, followed by letters and tone for 10 trials; and only letters for 20 trials. The results showed: (1) positive SPR habituated and negative did not, (2) tone produced more SP activity, (3) HR showed a shift from acceleration to deceleration over 20 trials, but tone had no influence, (4) tone had no direct influence on span scores, (5) S s showed improvement in number ol letters reported correctly. There was a significant correlation between span and negative SPR when tone was sounded (r =. 36).