Search results for "PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY"
showing 10 items of 44 documents
Postural Sway During Standing and Unexpected Disturbance of Balance in Random Samples of Men of Different Ages
1985
Postural sway behavior while standing and during and after an unexpected disturbance of balance was examined in men aged 31 to 35, 51 to 55, and 71 to 75 years. The groups studied were random samples of men living in the town of Jyväskylä in 1981. Postural sway while standing was more pronounced in the older age groups, whereas after a disturbance of balance postural sway was nearly the same in all age groups. The functioning of the postural control system was correlated with the vibratory threshold on the ankles, grip strength, as well as with aerobic and anaerobic capacity within the age groups. Further, in the youngest age group the functioning of the postural control system was poorer a…
Driving on the motorway: the effect of alternating speed on driver's activation level and mental effort
2002
When most of the driving tasks are performed automatically, a driver's level of alertness may decline, as has been pointed out in the study of the phenomenon called 'highway hypnosis'. One possible countermeasure is to periodically vary the speed (Wertheim 1978), but the authors have not found any studies that directly assess the effectiveness of this countermeasure. The objective of our study has been to provide empirical evidence regarding the effects of this strategy on the level of driver activation on a motorway route in real traffic. In the present study activation level as indexed by a relative measure based on slow EEG activity tended to be significantly higher when speed was modifi…
Rifle-balancing in precision shooting:behavioral aspects and psychophysiological implication
2007
This study investigated sharpshooters' strategies to control their rifle stability during the aiming period. Six elite and six pre-elite shooters completed a simulated realistic shooting task (laser rifle), and their performance was evaluated from behavioral and psychophysiological perspectives. The analysis of the rifle's barrel movement, indexing the shooter's behavioral performance, supported the view that rifle-balancing is an essential determinant of superior shooting performance. The psychophysiological data, i.e. the brain slow potentials, suggested that the shooters applied different rifle-hold strategies; the elite shooters concentrated primarily on achieving a stable rifle positio…
Psychophysiological responses to cooperation: The role of outcome and gender
2013
Instances of sustained cooperative behaviour in humans can be considered as an adaptive strategy that enhances the probability of reaching a goal. This study investigates psychophysiological responses to cooperation in healthy subjects, while considering outcome and gender as potential moderators of these responses. Salivary cortisol levels (Csal), heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL), nonspecific skin conductance responses (NSRs), and mood states were measured at different points before, during and after a Lego house-building task in undergraduate men (n = 22) and women (n = 20). Once the task was finished, the experimenter informed the participants about the outcome obtained (pos…
Blunted Electrodermal and Psychological Response to Acute Stress in Family Caregivers of People with Eating Disorders.
2016
AbstractCaring for an offspring with an eating disorder (ED) is associated with high levels of distress, and health problems. Indeed, ED caregivers have to cope with a range of challenges related to their caring role, which represents a chronic stress situation. This tends to alter body homeostasis and caregivers’ health status. This study aimed to analyse the electrodermal reactivity and psychological response to acute stress in ED caregivers compared to non-caregivers. As expected, caregivers showed lower electrodermal (p < .001, η2partial = .269 for SCL and p < .01, η2partial = .214 for NSCRs) and psychological response (p < .05, η2partial = .198) to acute stress than non-caregi…
Individuality of movements in music--finger and body movements during playing of the flute.
2013
The achievement of mastery in playing a composition by means of a musical instrument typically requires numerous repetitions and corrections according to the keys and notations of the music piece. Nevertheless, differences in the interpretation of the same music piece by highly skilled musicians seem to be recognizable. The present study investigated differences within and between skilled flute players in their finger and body movements playing the same piece several times on the same and on different days. Six semiprofessional and four professional musicians played an excerpt of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 several times on three different days. Finger and body movements were recorded by …
Strength of memory encoding affects physiological responses in the Guilty Actions Test
2009
The Guilty Actions Test (GAT) is a valid and scientifically sound technique of forensic psychophysiology that allows for the detection of concealed memories. However, its application has been challenged because the results might be affected by the culprit's forgetting of crime details as well as the leakage of information to innocents. In the current study, these aspects were examined by varying the amount of time between a mock crime and the subsequent GAT, as well as by contrasting culprits with informed innocents. It turned out that culprits specifically forgot peripheral crime details during a period of 2 weeks whereas informed innocents showed similar forgetting for all details. As a c…
Psychophysiological and vocal measures in the detection of guilty knowledge.
2004
The Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) and its variant, the Guilty Actions Test (GAT), are both psychophysiological questioning techniques aiming to detect guilty knowledge of suspects or witnesses in criminal and forensic cases. Using a GAT, this study examined the validity of various physiological and vocal measures for the identification of guilty and innocent participants in a mock crime paradigm. Electrodermal, respiratory, and cardiovascular measures successfully differentiated between the two groups. A logistic regression model based on these variables achieved hit rates of above 90%. In contrast to these results, the vocal measures provided by the computerized voice stress analysis system …
Blue-yellow deficiency in workers exposed to low concentrations of organic solvents
1997
Objectives: To evaluate the effects of low concentrations of organic solvents on color vision. Methods: Color vision was examined in 24 workers exposed to mixtures of solvents and in 24 control subjects. Exposure to mixtures was below the threshold-limit values. Color vision ability was assessed using the Ishihara plates (to screen for congenital dyschromatopsia), the Farnsworth panel D-15 test, the Lanthony desaturated panel D-15 test, and the Standard Pseudoisochromatic Plates part 2 (SPP2 test). Results: The comparatively less sensitive Farnsworth panel D-15 test failed to show any difference between the groups, but the Lanthony panel D-15 desaturated test as well as the SPP2 test showed…
Effects of instruction on acquisition and extinction of electrodermal responses to fear-relevant stimuli.
1977
In the present study we examined the hypothesis that electrodermal responses conditioned to fear-relevant stimuli are insensitive to verbal instructions. In the first experiment, different groups of subjects were conditioned to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant control stimuli in a long interstimulus interval differential paradigm with shock as the unconditioned stimulus. Then half of the subjects were informed that no more shocks would be presented, and a number of extinction trials followed. The instruction completely abolished responding to fear-irrelevant stimuli, while leaving responses to the fear-relevant stimuli unaffected. In the second experiment, subjects were "conditioned" to fe…