Thirty‐two male college students who scored above 50 (standard score) on the Closure Flexibility (CF) test were designated field independent (FI), and eight who scored below 50 were designated field dependent (FD). It was found that FI subjects were able to discriminate between the conditioned tone (CS) and the un‐reinforced generalization tones by the amplitude of their GSR significantly better (p < 0.01) than were FD persons. Although it cannot be asserted with certainty that this relationship is dependent on the autonomic response system, there is tentative support for this position. It seems probable that even the FD subjects could distinguish between the two most different pitched tones; yet they failed to make this distinction by their GSR responses. This lack of differentiation by the FD subject appears to be a function of a less well‐differentiated autonomic nervous system. This study demonstrates that the stimulus generalization gradient involves an interaction between the cognitive style of the organism and the impinging stimuli, not merely the quantitative physical characteristics of the stimuli.

Movement slowness is a common and disruptive symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). A potential cause is that individuals with MS slow down to conserve energy as a behavioral adjustment to heightened metabolic costs of movement. To investigate this prospect, we measured the metabolic costs of both walking and seated arm reaching at five speeds in persons with mild MS (pwMS; n = 13; 46.0 ± 7.7yrs) and sex- and age-matched controls (HCs; n = 13; 45.8 ± 7.8yrs). Notably, the cohort of pwMS was highly mobile and no individuals required a cane or aid when walking. We found that the net metabolic power of walking was approximately 20% higher for pwMS across all speeds (p = 0.0185). In contrast, we found no differences in the gross costs of reaching between pwMS and HCs (p = 0.492). Collectively, our results suggest that abnormal slowness of movement in MS - particularly reaching - is not the consequence of heightened effort costs alone. Our findings are consistent with the possibility that demyelination of reward regions of the central nervous system in MS disrupt the dopamine-mediated impetus to move more quickly and thereby prompt slower movements.

No abstract

Movement slowness is a common and disruptive symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). A potential cause is that individuals with MS slow down to conserve energy as a behavioral adjustment to heightened metabolic costs of movement. To investigate this prospect, we measured the metabolic costs of both walking and seated arm reaching at five speeds in persons with mild MS (pwMS; n = 13; 46.0 ± 7.7yrs) and sex- and age-matched controls (HCs; n = 13; 45.8 ± 7.8yrs). Notably, the cohort of pwMS was highly mobile and no individuals required a cane or aid when walking. We found that the net metabolic power of walking was approximately 20% higher for pwMS across all speeds (p = 0.0185). In contrast, we found no differences in the gross power of reaching between pwMS and HCs (p = 0.492). Collectively, our results suggest that abnormal slowness of movement in MS - particularly reaching - is not the consequence of heightened effort costs and that other sensorimotor mechanisms are playing a considerable role in slowing.