Effects of overt and covert task instructions and stimulus modality on orienting response recorded by electrodermal indices

Two experiments were conducted to examine the occurrences of “selective” orienting response (OR) and “alertive” OR by electrodermal response (EDR) in connection with task instructions and stimulus modalities. Two groups of 36 female university students received two visual and/or auditory stimuli during both habituation and test sessions either unimodally (Exp. I) or bimodally (Exp. II). The subjects in both experiments were assigned to one of three subgroups: PR (pedal-responding), SC (stimulation-counting), and NI (neutral-instruction). The PR was instructed to pedal to the test stimulus; the SC to count the number of the test stimulus presentations; the NI to do nothing. Results are as follows: (1) In Exp. I, a significant increase of the EDR to the test stimulus (selective OR) was observed by both the PR and the SC. (2) In Exp. II, only the PR alone showed significant augmental changes in the EDR magnitude to the non-test stimuli (alertive OR) as well as to the test stimuli. It was suggested, therefore, that the covert task had a little possibility for eliciting the alertive OR

Audiology · Cognitive psychology · Covert · Habituation · Neutral stimulus · Orienting response · Stimulus (psychology) · Stimulus control · EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces · Medicine · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neural dynamics and brain function · Neuroscience · Psychology

• Habituation

  Philip M Groves, Richard F Thompson•Psychological Review•1970

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• On Methods in the Analysis of Profile Data

  Open Access•Samuel W Greenhouse, Seymour Geisser•Psychometrika•1959

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