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An Empirical Test of Sokolov's Entropy Model of the Orienting Response
Author(s) -
Velden M.
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.tb01137.x
Subject(s) - psychology , skin conductance , stimulus (psychology) , orienting response , information processing , tonic (physiology) , entropy (arrow of time) , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , thermodynamics , medicine , habituation , biomedical engineering , physics
Several hypotheses, most of them deduced from Sokolov's entropy model of the Orienting Response (OR), were tested. The Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) served as the indicator of the OR. Printed language, analyzed with regard to the information content in bits, was used as stimulus material. Forty‐eight female students served as subjects. The results indicate: (1) that the uncertainty of a situation does not determine the strength of the OR, (2) that the strength of the OR depends on the information carried by an event, and (3) that the processing of this information, as indicated by the OR, may be delayed by one or more events in a serial application. For tonic level over a series of events no trend could be found.