No abstract

Physiological measures—basal skin resistance (BSR), galvanic skin resistance (GSR), electrocardiogram (EKG), and skin temperatures—were made on 120 consecutive days on 3 male subjects during rest, a 20‐item word association test, recovery, a cold‐pressor test, a combination of cold‐pressor and a second similar word‐association test, and final recovery. Each stimulus alone induced increased sympathetic activity. Ongoing stress (cold pressor) responses, however, were depressed during the word‐association test. Furthermore, the nature, reaction times, and commonalities of the associations were influenced by the stress. The inhibition was not due to order, threshold, adaptation, or conditioning effects.

Two digit span tests are compared. The first was the traditional test consisting of seven numbers with digits ranging from 4 through 10, and the second, a new test with two forms in which four 8-digit and four 10-digit numbers alternate. High correlations are noted between the test scores in all instances even with the varied test procedures and scoring techniques. The strong influence of the size of number and the lesser influence of practice on the intercorrelations among these tests are shown. A factor analysis established that the new test measured the same factor as the traditional test and that both were essentially independent of the other tests of the Repetitive Psychometric Measures Battery. Reliabilities were maintained or increased slightly in the shorter new test by several techniques. Using the format of the new test, 8 alternate forms were selected from an original battery of 30, based on the results of 12 repetitions of each form by three Ss. These seem sufficiently well equated for potential detection of relatively small changes due to drug, fatigue, motivational, and similar effects.

No abstract