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Arousal, perceived arousal and emotions
134 5. Kavetsky, R.E. (Ed., 1958) The neoplastic process and the nervous disease. State Medical Publishing House, Kiev (In Russian)
AROUSAL, PERCEIVED AROUSAL AND EMOTIONS M.W. Battacchi, D. Palomba, L. Stegagno & B. Baldaro Universities of Bologna and Padua, Italy The present study examined the relationships between actual physiological arousal, perceived arousal (i.e. perceived bodily changes) and emotional feelings in emotion-eliciting situations. Seven measures were taken: heart rate, respiratory rate, muscle tone, and arterial pressure for physiological arousal, a Symptom Perception Questionnaire for perceived arousal, and two scales for self-reported emotions. 54 Subjects took part in the experiment. Before the experiment proper an injection of distilled water was administered to each subject. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a first group was falsely informed about the arousing effect and another one about the relaxation effect, of the injection, whereas no explanation was given to the third group. Subjects had to watch two short movie sequences from “The eye of the needle” presented in balanced order. The two sequences had been judged as being, one of high emotional value and the other neutral in a preliminary study. Three baseline were taken: one before, and a second after, the injection, and a third between the two movie sequences. Main results: for all the physiological measures but the muscle tone there was a significant interaction state (baseline vs watching) x emotional value of the sequence, whereas the kind of information about the drug had no effect. No difference between states as well as between groups and sequences turned out to be significant as far as the Symptom Perception Questionnaire is concerned, so that no relationship between actual arousal and perceived effects of arousal was found. In contrast, there was a significant interaction kind of information about the drug x emotional value of the sequence with regard to the self-reported emotions. Actual physiological arousal, perceived effects of arousal, and emotional feelings appeared to be reciprocally indipendent dimensions.
THE ‘ODDBALL - CNV’ H. Bauer, T. Radii* and Ch. Rebert** Dept. Psychol., Univ. of Vienna, Vienna, AUT *Dept. Physiol., Czech. Acad. SC., Prague, CSSR **Dept. Live-SC., SRI Int., Menlo Park, CA, USA Fifteen volunteering right-handed subjects participated in a cued reaction time experiment. The subjects’ task was to respond to a flash (S2) cued randomly ordered and in a certain probability ratio by one of two easily distinguishable acoustic stimuli (Sla, Slb) 4 seconds in advance. According to the cue the subjects had to push the left (Sla) or the right (Slb) response button as fast as possible with their right index finger; the subjects were instructed to rest their finger between the two response buttons during the variable inter stimulus interval (ITI: 7 to 15 set) and start the response movement not before S2-onset. The probability ratio of the two Sls was 0.1 to 0.9 in condition 1,0.3 to 0.7 in condition 2 and 0.5 to 0.5 in condition 3. To achieve a number of 40 trials of the inI?equentIy presented S l-S2 pair, condition 1 consisted of 400 trials, condition 2 of 133 trials and condition 3 of 80 trials. The order of the 3 conditions as well as the application of S la and S 1b as the frequent or rare event was balanced across subjects. The EEG was picked up from 6 different skin-scratched recording sites (F3, F4, C3, Cz, C4 and P3; 10-20 system) referenced to linked mastoid covering a frequency range from DC to 30 Hz digitized at a sampling rate of 250/set for digital storage. In order to control eye movement artifacts the vertical and horizontal EGG was recorded bipolarly by supra- to i&a-orbital and left to right lateral canthal leads respectively. Like the P300 the CNV show a negative correlation between stimulus probability and the value in amplitude, too; with a 0.5 to 0.5 probability ratio CNVs are statistically identical in their moderately large amplitudes but with decreasing probability the amplitude values increase and vice versa. The most striking point, of course, is that in condition 1 with the 0.9 probability S l-S2 pair the CNVs are characterized by only a very small 0- and E-wave; also no habituation of CNV amplitudes was found across these trials. Additionally the 0.1 probability pairs evoke CNV amplitudes like those observable in experiments with only one kind of s l-S2 pair. These data suggest assuming that a limited capacity
AROUSAL, PERCEIVED AROUSAL AND EMOTIONS M.W. Battacchi, D. Palomba, L. Stegagno & B. Baldaro Universities of Bologna and Padua, Italy The present study examined the relationships between actual physiological arousal, perceived arousal (i.e. perceived bodily changes) and emotional feelings in emotion-eliciting situations. Seven measures were taken: heart rate, respiratory rate, muscle tone, and arterial pressure for physiological arousal, a Symptom Perception Questionnaire for perceived arousal, and two scales for self-reported emotions. 54 Subjects took part in the experiment. Before the experiment proper an injection of distilled water was administered to each subject. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a first group was falsely informed about the arousing effect and another one about the relaxation effect, of the injection, whereas no explanation was given to the third group. Subjects had to watch two short movie sequences from “The eye of the needle” presented in balanced order. The two sequences had been judged as being, one of high emotional value and the other neutral in a preliminary study. Three baseline were taken: one before, and a second after, the injection, and a third between the two movie sequences. Main results: for all the physiological measures but the muscle tone there was a significant interaction state (baseline vs watching) x emotional value of the sequence, whereas the kind of information about the drug had no effect. No difference between states as well as between groups and sequences turned out to be significant as far as the Symptom Perception Questionnaire is concerned, so that no relationship between actual arousal and perceived effects of arousal was found. In contrast, there was a significant interaction kind of information about the drug x emotional value of the sequence with regard to the self-reported emotions. Actual physiological arousal, perceived effects of arousal, and emotional feelings appeared to be reciprocally indipendent dimensions.
THE ‘ODDBALL - CNV’ H. Bauer, T. Radii* and Ch. Rebert** Dept. Psychol., Univ. of Vienna, Vienna, AUT *Dept. Physiol., Czech. Acad. SC., Prague, CSSR **Dept. Live-SC., SRI Int., Menlo Park, CA, USA Fifteen volunteering right-handed subjects participated in a cued reaction time experiment. The subjects’ task was to respond to a flash (S2) cued randomly ordered and in a certain probability ratio by one of two easily distinguishable acoustic stimuli (Sla, Slb) 4 seconds in advance. According to the cue the subjects had to push the left (Sla) or the right (Slb) response button as fast as possible with their right index finger; the subjects were instructed to rest their finger between the two response buttons during the variable inter stimulus interval (ITI: 7 to 15 set) and start the response movement not before S2-onset. The probability ratio of the two Sls was 0.1 to 0.9 in condition 1,0.3 to 0.7 in condition 2 and 0.5 to 0.5 in condition 3. To achieve a number of 40 trials of the inI?equentIy presented S l-S2 pair, condition 1 consisted of 400 trials, condition 2 of 133 trials and condition 3 of 80 trials. The order of the 3 conditions as well as the application of S la and S 1b as the frequent or rare event was balanced across subjects. The EEG was picked up from 6 different skin-scratched recording sites (F3, F4, C3, Cz, C4 and P3; 10-20 system) referenced to linked mastoid covering a frequency range from DC to 30 Hz digitized at a sampling rate of 250/set for digital storage. In order to control eye movement artifacts the vertical and horizontal EGG was recorded bipolarly by supra- to i&a-orbital and left to right lateral canthal leads respectively. Like the P300 the CNV show a negative correlation between stimulus probability and the value in amplitude, too; with a 0.5 to 0.5 probability ratio CNVs are statistically identical in their moderately large amplitudes but with decreasing probability the amplitude values increase and vice versa. The most striking point, of course, is that in condition 1 with the 0.9 probability S l-S2 pair the CNVs are characterized by only a very small 0- and E-wave; also no habituation of CNV amplitudes was found across these trials. Additionally the 0.1 probability pairs evoke CNV amplitudes like those observable in experiments with only one kind of s l-S2 pair. These data suggest assuming that a limited capacity