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The Effects of Operant Heart Rate Conditioning on Cognitive Elaboration and Attitude Change
Author(s) -
Cacioppo John T.,
Sandman Curt A.,
Walker Barbara B.
Publication year - 1978
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.1469-8986.1978.tb01389.x
Subject(s) - persuasion , psychology , heart rate , conditioning , affect (linguistics) , cognition , elaboration , operant conditioning , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , communication , medicine , reinforcement , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , humanities , blood pressure
A psychophysiological investigation was conducted to assess the relationships among heart rate, affect‐laden thought processes, and attitudes. Twenty subjects were trained for five days to raise and lower heart rate by means of a discriminative operant conditioning procedure. On the fifth day, communications that advocated positions with which undergraduates disagreed were presented during a raised, lowered, and basal (unaltered) heart rate trial. Results revealed that the heart rate conditioning procedure produced specific changes in heart rate, and affected the counterarguing (critical processing) to and acceptance of the persuasive communications; counterarguing and resistance to persuasion were greater during raised heart rate trials than during lowered heart rate trials. These findings are consistent with and suggest an extension of the Laceys' hypothesis concerning cardiac activity and cognitive elaboration, and provide evidence of the influence of affect‐laden thought processes on evaluative reactions.