Autonomic learning

Academic achievement was resolved into its intellectual and motivational components. IQ, personality variables, and parameters of operant and classical conditioning of autonomic nervous system controlled variables were examined in 99 black inner-city high school seniors. Six physiological variables(respiration, heart rate, finger plethysmogram, frontalis muscle potential, palmar skin conductance, and palmar skin potential) were analyzed by computer using analog-to-digital conversion and a Points of Interest (PI) program. Psychological measures were full WAIS IQ, Edwards Personality Inventory(EPI), Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire(16PF), McClelland need Achievement test(n Ach), Object Sorting test, Minnesota Counseling Inventory(MCI), Level of Aspiration Board, and Rotter—Miller Locus of Control. Achievement(Ach) was defined as the residuals of total grade point average(GPA) regressed on IQ. Each of 19 variables which discriminated significantly between high and low achievers was employed in step-wise regression analyses for GPA and Ach separately. In a regression analysis of variance of GPA, IQ=20.44%, EPI=9.08%, and physiological measures =21.37%(operant conditioning =18.70%; classical conditioning =2.67%). Combined measures of motivation(psychological and physiological) =30.45% of the variance in GPA. The entire psychological and physiological test battery, including IQ, contributed a total of 50.89% of the variance in GPA. In a regression analysis of variance in achievement, psychological measures, other than IQ(six EPI and one 16PF), =11.0% and physiological measures =30.3%. As a replication, this study demonstrated significant correlation between autonomic conditioning and school achievement.