0000000000142558
AUTHOR
Heinz Zimmer
Habituation of the orienting response as reflected by the skin conductance response and by endogenous event-related brain potentials
The paper is concerned with the question of whether endogenous components of the auditory event-related brain potential (ERP) qualify for showing habituation of the orienting response (OR). Although response decrements have been found in nearly every ERP component, this question is still of current concern because a true selective response inhibition proving habituation of the OR is still lacking. The question has been tackled using single-trial ERP measurements in classical variants of the repetition/change paradigm commonly used in the traditional OR research on autonomous responses such as the skin conductance response (SCR). Results on 120 adults indicate that at least two endogenous co…
The role of noticing in prospective memory forgetting.
Two experiments used autonomic reactions (i.e., skin conductance responses; SCRs) in conjunction with behavioral responses to study retrieval processes in prospective memory. SCRs were recorded while participants performed a prospective memory task embedded in an ongoing task. Stimuli that received the same behavioral response (i.e., no prospective memory response) evoked different autonomic reactions as a function of whether they were versus were not prospective cues (Experiments 1 and 2) and as a function of whether they did versus did not share perceptual or conceptual features with prospective cues (Experiment 2). To the extent that SCRs provide an index of noticing a stimulus, increase…
Psychometric properties of non-specific electrodermal response frequency for a sample of male students.
In the present study data on the frequency of non-specific electrodermal responses (NSRs) are presented for a large and, with regard to sex, age and educational level, homogeneous sample of male students (n = 590). These data were obtained in 9 independent experiments in which NSRs were recorded under equivalent conditions. NSRs were scored as skin conductance changes greater than 0.02 muSiemens. A recording period of 5 min prior to experimental manipulations was chosen. A systematic comparison between the 9 studies, the distribution of NSRs for the total sample, as well as descriptive data for stabile and labile subgroups are presented. For 213 subjects NSR-frequency was recorded twice, wi…
Habituation and laterality of orienting processes as reflected by slow negative waves
The study is concerned with the question of whether the orienting wave (O-wave), a slow potential shift of the event-related brain potential, is a component of the orienting response (OR). As habituation is supposed to be the most important characteristic of the OR, we focussed particularly on any habituating aspect of the O-wave. Results suggest that its bilateral distribution over midfrontal areas might constitute such a link relating the O-wave to orienting activity. Hemispheric asymmetry linearly decreased its right-sided predominance in response to repeated presentations of an initially novel auditory stimulus. A similar, concomitant diminution of the skin conductance response (SCR) oc…
Habituation and recovery of a slow negative wave of the event-related brain potential.
This study is concerned with the question of whether the late, slow negative wave 2 (SNW2) component of the event-related brain potential is a component of the orienting response (OR). As habituation of the SNW2 would be an argument for such a link with the OR, it was investigated using a variant of the classical repetition/change paradigm. Results supported major claims to be made for a component of the OR: the amplitude of the vertex SNW2 exhibited roughly the typical exponential decline with repeated stimulations (six numeric verbal stimuli presented seriatim in an ascending order) and responded incrementally to a change, at least in a narrow time slot, i.e. it exhibited partial recovery…
Scoring Criteria for Electrodermal Habituation: Further Research
In the context of Levinson and Edelberg's critique of scoring criteria for electrodermal habituation, the present study examined the question of whether trials-to-habituation scores based on two no-response trials are superior to scores based on three no-response trials. Male students (N=120) performed two identical habituation experiments on two consecutive days and their skin conductance responses based on a short latency window of 1–3 s were analyzed. In each experiment subjects received 20 presentations of a 1000 Hz tone at 65dB. Results showed that three-trials scores were higher overall and that the distributions of three- and two-trials scores differed. On the other hand, the twoscor…
Emotional after‐effects on the P3 component of the event‐related brain potential
Agrowing body of literature indicates that affective states can influence cognitive processes. The core assumption of Ellis and Ashbrook's (1988) model explaining these emotional after-effects on cognition is that the emotional state regulates the allocation of processing resources. A negative emotional state is supposed to pre-empt capacity normally allocated to the cognitive task at hand. This is assumed to occur because the negative emotional state leads to an increase in intrusive, irrelevant thoughts, which compete with relevant cognitive activities and thus result in a lack of attention given to relevant features of the task to be performed. In the present study, the hypothesis that n…
Frequenz und mittlere Amplitude spontaner elektrodermaler Fluktuationen sind keine austauschbaren Indikatoren psychischer Prozesse
Zusammenfassung. Die Arbeit ging experimentell der Frage nach, ob zwei zentrale Aspekte spontaner elektrodermaler Fluktuationen, ihre Frequenz und ihre mittlere Amplitude, dieselbe Information über psychische Prozesse liefern. Experimentell variiert wurde dazu mittels Imaginationsmethode das Thema und der Selbstbezug induzierter Vorstellungen. Die experimentellen Manipulationen folgten einem 2×2-faktoriellen Versuchsplan für unabhängige Gruppen (Zellbesetzung: jeweils 24 Personen). Gemessen wurde die Veränderung der elektrodermalen Aktivität von einer Ruhe- zu der Vorstellungsphase. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß die beiden Variablen keine austauschbaren Indikatoren psychischer Prozesse sind.…