Perceptual Mode and Cardiac Conditioning

Abstract

Conditional heart rate responses were measured for field-dependent and fieldindependent subjects. The conditional stimulus (CS) was a colored light and the unconditional stimulus (US) was an electric shock delivered to the finger. The CS-US interval was 10 sec. The field-independent suhjects demonstrated an initial cardiac acceleration followed hy a cardiac deceleration, whereas the field-dependent suhjects showed only the cardiac deceleration. When these data are compared with the previously reported galvanic skin response (GSR) data, a model of sympathetic-parasympathetic reactivity is evolved wherein the field-independent group shows both conditioned sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic activity, while the field-dependent group shows only parasympathetic activity. DESCRIPTORS: Heart rate, Field-dependent, Field-independent, Sympathetic autonomic activity, Parasympathetic autonomic activity (P. L. Hein).