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To What Does the Terminal Orienting Response Respond?
Author(s) -
Greene Roger L.,
Dengerink Harold A.,
Staples Susan L.
Publication year - 1974
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.1469-8986.1974.tb01131.x
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , psychology , neutral stimulus , audiology , second order stimulus , cognition , cognitive psychology , communication , perception , stimulus control , neuroscience , visual perception , medicine , nicotine
Previous authors suggested that the electrodermal orienting response to stimulus onset (OR) reflects cognitive processes related to the content of a stimulus while responses to stimulus offset (TOR) reflect processes related to stimulus duration. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that the OR and TOR are special cases of S s responding to whatever part of the stimulus contains information necessary to make the requested judgment. The results clearly supported this alternative hypothesis. The S s responded to stimulus onset when asked to judge the pitch (content) of a constant tone and to stimulus offset when asked to judge the terminal pitch of a varying tone. They responded to both the onset and offset of a stimulus when asked to compare the onset and offset pitch and when asked to judge stimulus duration. Experiment 2 partially replicated Experiment 1 in an attempt to assess the OR‐TOR phenomenon in a second sensory modality (vision) and with a second dependent measure. The patterns of both electrodermal and heart rate responses were similar to those of Experiment 1 and to those observed by other authors.