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Electrodermal Lability and Dichotic Listening
Author(s) -
O'Gorman J. G.,
Lloyd Jacqueline E. M.
Publication year - 1988
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.1469-8986.1988.tb01889.x
Subject(s) - dichotic listening , psychology , skin conductance , audiology , stimulus (psychology) , arousal , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , medicine , biomedical engineering
Subjects identified as electrodermal labiles and stabiles on the basis of frequency of nonspecific skin conductance responses during a resting period were presented with a series of auditory stimuli followed by dichotic presentation of different sets of words to each ear with the requirement to report as many words as possible irrespective of ear. Labiles performed better than stabiles on the dichotic listening task and were found to habituate skin conductance response more slowly to both tones and dichotic stimuli, and to show higher skin conductance level during both stimulus series and higher heart rate level during the dichotic series. There were no significant differences between the groups on a measure of EEG alpha activity during either series. The data were consistent with an arousal rather than an attentional interpretation of the labile‐stabile difference.