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COMMENT ON TWO RECENT REPORTS OF OPERANT HEART RATE CONDITIONING
Author(s) -
Murray E. Neil,
Katkin Edward S.
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.tb02816.x
Subject(s) - operant conditioning , psychology , reinforcement , conditioning , heart rate , mediator , developmental psychology , cognition , somatic cell , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , medicine , blood pressure , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , statistics , mathematics
This paper examined two reports of operant heart rate (HR) conditioning, one of which reported apparently successful cardiac slowing, and the other apparently successful cardiac speeding. Although the authors of these two studies concluded that they had demonstrated instrumental modification of HR independent of somatic mediators, this review of their results indicated that voluntary activity was a crucial mediator of the obtained effects. New statistical analyses were presented to support the notion that S s’ cognitive and somatic activities influenced HR change more than the reinforcement contingencies utilized.