Moderating Effects of Trait Anxiety on Electrodermal Reactions in Different Learning Conditions

This study examined the control of the effects of trait anxiety on GSR during a problem-solving task under different conditions. Of 84 subjects, 39 men and 49 women of mean age 21 yr., 42 were classified as high in anxiety, 42 as low in anxiety. Subjects solved concept-formation tasks at different degrees of difficulty under one of three learning conditions. Low tone, unpleasant loud tone, and unpleasant electric shock provided the three kinds of error feedback. For the ‘low tone’ and ‘electric shock’ as feedback on errors significant differences in GSR values resulted for groups high and low in anxiety with the latter showing higher scores. The relevance of physiological patterns in multi…