The present study examined both human and horse heart rates (HRs) when humans stroked horses for 90 seconds; the subjective arousal levels of the humans were measured by the Tohoku Activation Deactivation Adjective Check List before and after stroking horses. Six male sublects with a positive attitude toward companion animals and 6 male subjects with a negative attitude were selected by their scores on the Pet Attitude Scale, and these two groups, together with a third group, of 6 subjects who were male members of the Doshisha University horse-riding club, participated in this experiment. The HRs of the human subjects during the first 10 seconds immediately after the stroking began were significantly higher than those obtained after that period, but these higher levels gradually returned to baseline levels. This tendency appears more clearly in the negative attitude group. The HRs of the horses increased during the first 20 seconds immediately after the human subjects of the NA group started stroking them, but gradually reduced as the stroking continued. The results of subjective arousal levels suggest a decrease in tension by stroking horses. These results suggest that a certain affectional interaction may exist between humans and companion animals.

We inspected Lang's bio-informational theory and furthered the research. 24 subjects were divided into two groups, a stimulus group (S-group) and a response group (R-group) for scripts with Joy, Anger, and Neutral emotions. In the training session, the S-group was instructed to image the scripts as vividly as possible, while the R-group was instructed to concentrate on physiological and physical responses in addition to what was asked of the S-group. On the test day, subjects imaged two Neutral scripts, two standard emotional scripts, and two personally relevant emotional scripts. Indices were physiological response (blood pressure) and subjects' ratings for imaging. We confirmed that emotional scripts increased physiological responses more than nonemotional scripts did. The results suggested that the differences in the scripts' content affected blood pressure and subjects' ratings of imaging.

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We examined the transient finger-pressure when subjects were exposed to the schematic faces which depict "anger," "joy," "sadness," and "no emotion," and to two nonfacial stimuli. In Exp. 1, nine undergraduate women were asked to discriminate between those target stimuli and the nontarget stimuli by pressing on the finger rest of Clynes' Sentograph, without informing subjects that this experiment was to measure emotions. In Exp. 2, the same subjects were asked to express their feelings evoked by the schematic faces by pressing on the finger rest. Results indicate that, even on the discrimination task, the differentiation in the finger-pressure waveforms among emotions was observed. Such differentiation suggests the possibility of measuring the expression of emotions with finger pressure even when the subjects are not aware their emotions are being measured. The identifiable characteristics of the waveforms are the long duration for "sadness" and the strong intensity of pressure for "anger."