The SB performed a paced mental task at three levels of difficulty, while time-locked recordings of pupil diameter, heart rate, and skin resistance were made. A similar pattern of sympatheticlike increase was found in the three autonomic functions during information intake and processing, followed by a decrease during the report phase. The peak response in each measure was ordered as a function of task difficulty.

To investigate the effect of control predictability on reactions to avcrsive stimulation, subjects received a sequence of electric shocks, gradually increasing in intensity. Subjective judgment points, including decision about limit of endurance, and heart rate were used to assess reactions to the shocks. It was found that a small variation in control and predictability of the shocks (who pushed the shock button) did not itself affect reactions to the shocks. However, control over the intensity of successive shocks and predictabiltiy of the timing of shocks (self-control) versus lack of control and predictability (no control) did affect reactions to the shocks. Compared to self-control subjects, no-control subjects judged less intense shock as uncomfortable and tolerated somewhat less shocks. These differences disappeared on a second administration of shocks when both groups were given no-control conditions (loss of control for self-control subjects). The experimental treatments also affected heart rate reactions to the shocks. The findings suggest that control predictability can reduce the aversiveness of noxious stimulation.

From earlier work on the effects of instructional sets, it was hypothesized that subcultural differences in attitudes toward pain should be reflected in psycho‐physiological correlates. Yankee, Irish. Jewish, and Italian housewives participated in threshold and magnitude estimation studies of electric shock, and their skin potential responses to repetitive electrical stimulation were recorded. Significant differences in upper thresholds and in the adaptation of diphasic palmar skin potentials are consonant with attitudinal differences, and such differences support earlier findings on the influence of sets on psychophysiological functioning.

Operant conditioning-feedback techniques were employed to lower systolic blood pressure in seven patients with essential hypertension. In five of the patients, meaningful decreases of systolic blood pressure were obtained in the laboratory, ranging from 16 to 34 millimeters of mercury. The therapeutic value of such techniques remains to be established.