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Individual Differences in Autonomic Responses: Illustration of a Possible Solution
Author(s) -
Egeren Lawrence F. Van,
Headrick Mary W.,
Hein Peter L.
Publication year - 1972
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.1469-8986.1972.tb00774.x
Subject(s) - psychology , interval (graph theory) , cognitive psychology , mathematics , combinatorics
A factor analysis methodology for the study of individual differences in response functions developed by Tucker (1958, 1966) was illustrated by analysis of conditional cardiac responses. Three cardiac (factor) responses were found: one acceleratory‐deceleratory, a second monophasic, and a third deceleratory‐acceleratory, over the CS–UCS interval. Individual conditional responses were composed of the acceleratory‐deceleratory component plus either positive or negative parts of the second and third components. Individual differences in conditional cardiac response forms were substantial. The factor model provided a better fit of observed responses than the average response model provided. The advantages of determining psychophysiological functions (laws) having explicit parameters for individuals were discussed.