Psychophysiological assessment of change in erotic preferences

The difficulties involved in validating effectiveness of the various therapies of anomalous erotic preferences are often underestimated. Basically, methods of physiological assessment of erotic preferences would appear to be promising. However they still pose considerable problems. There are two kinds of such methods, those where measurement of general arousal is employed, and those which are based on assessment of sexual arousal proper. The former are only weak indicators of erotic preferences; the latter are to date represented only by assessment of penile volume changes to various kinds of potentially erotic stimuli (the phallometric test). The usefulness of the latter method in assessment of (therapeutic) changes in erotic preferences is basically limited to one particular situation only.Directions are pointed out in which this test is to be further developed to make it more generally useful as an indicator of (therapeutic) change in erotic preferences.     

A note on erotic arousal value of moving and stationary human forms

For subhuman vertebrates there already exists a huge body of information on male and female courtship behaviour and in many instances the impact of movement patterns on the prospective partner has been assessed. However, little information is available on the erotic impact of human movement patterns.In analysing erotic preferences by means of the phallometric method, moving vs. still pictures has been a factor in a variety of studies. Kolá?ský and Madlafousek (1973) compared the erotic responses of normal and sexually deviant males to filmed courtship behaviour, non-erotic activities and stills of the same female. They found that dynamically presented filmed courtship patterns were more arousing for normal heterosexual males than stills on which no particular activity was shown, and that these stills were more arousing than movie pictures of nonerotic activities.In a study of classical conditioning, McConaghy (1970) found he could not condition positive penile responses to geometric figures when using still pictures of nude females as unconditioned stimuli, but that this was possible when using movies. He concluded that the movie pictures had a greater impact on his Ss than the stills and supported this impression with another study in which he compared responses to movies and stills of nude females (McConaghy, 1973). However, the persons on the movies were not identical with those on the stills and the depicted behavioural configurations varied widely. In the following study, results are reported on the erotic value of a relatively simple movement pattern, namely walking towards the viewer and smiling, vs. a still picture of the same person smiling.     

Erotic stimuli and aggression: facilitation or inhibition.

The present experiment attempted to reconcile previous results on the relationship of erotic stimuli and aggression. Subjects were either insulted or not insulted prior or subsequent to observing erotic stimuli of varying levels of arousal inducements. It was found, in support of prior research, that mildly erotic stimuli had an inhibiting effect on aggression when viewed subsequent to anger arousal, whereas highly erotic stimuli tended to maintain aggression at a level similar to nonerotic exposure. Prior viewing of erotic stimuli, however, had a facilitative effect on aggressive behavior. It was proposed that erotic stimuli have two components (arousal and attentional shift) that interact with anger arousal to either inhibit or facilitate aggressive behavior. The article considers the implications of this two-component system for future research on erotic and aggressive stimuli.     

情色文字与图片对大学生性倾向印象形成的启动差异

128名大学生被平均分成四个组,分别接受情色文字刺激、非情色文字刺激、情色图片刺激与非情色图片刺激,考察不同材料的情色信息会对性倾向印象形成产生怎样的启动效应。结果表明:情色文字对性倾向印象形成产生显著的正向启动效应,而情色图片对性倾向印象形成的启动没有呈现出单一方向的显著效应;男性对他人的性倾向印象形成要显著高于女性,但性别因素不对启动效应产生中介影响;接触容易令人产生性联想的情色刺激会导致个体更倾向于以性的或情色的眼光看待他人。     

Assessing affective experience of in-situ environmental walk via wearable biosensors for evidence-based design

In environmental psychology research, the most commonly used methods are phenomenological interviews and psychometric scales. Recently, with the development of wearable bio-sensing devices, a new approach based on bio-sensing data is becoming possible. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using wearable biosensors to document affective experience during in-situ walk. An eight-channelled Procomp multi-bio-sensing devices (EKG, EEG, skin conductance, temperature, facial EMG, respiration) were used, in addition with a GPS tracker, to measure the in situ physiological affective responses to environmental stimuli. This pilot experiment revealed consistent results between bio-sensing measures and two traditional methods, i.e. phenomenological interviews and psychological Likert scale rating, which indicated that mobile bio-sensing could be a promising method in measuring in-situ affective responses to environmental stimuli as well as diagnosing potential environmental stressor. This new bio-sensory method, as exemplified in this paper, could help identifying negative stressful stimuli and providing evidence-based diagnosis to support design strategies.     

Heightened sexual arousal and physical aggression: An extension to females

In order to examine the effects of heightened sexual arousal upon aggression by females, subjects were first angered or not angered by a female confederate, next exposed to one of four types of stimuli (nonerotic scenes; pictures of seminude young males; pictures of nude males; pictures of couples engaged in various acts of lovemaking), and finally provided with an opportunity to aggress against the confederate by means of electric shock. In accordance with previous research conduced with males, it was hypothesized that exposure to mild erotic stimuli would inhibit subsequent aggression, while exposure to more arousing stimuli of this type would facilitate such behavior. Results offered support for both predictions. In addition, it was found that females responded with increased aggression to types of erotic stimuli previously found to inhibit such behavior by males.     

视空间和听觉数字记忆的混合广度

Ｆｒｉｃｋ成功地增加了混合通道的广度,其必要条件是同时呈现视觉刺激和反序报告。该文采用干扰更少的Ｃｏｒｓｉ视空间测验,即序列呈现视觉刺激,并用正序报告,进行混合广度的新实验。发现在分离通道报告的条件下其混合广度都明显地高于单一通道的广度,因此Ｆｒｉｃｋ的两个必要条件不总是必需的。这种新的混合广度实验可能对研究工作记忆的中央执行系统有益。比较了刺激呈现模式和被试反应方式对混合广度的影响     

The discriminative validity of a phallometric test for pedophilic interests among adolescent sex offenders against children

The authors examined the responses of adolescent sex offenders against children on a phallometric test of pedophilic interests. Participants were 40 adolescent sex offenders against children, 75 young adult sex offenders against children, and 39 young adult comparison participants. The responses of adolescents with female victims resembled those of comparison participants; adolescents with any male victims had larger relative responses to child stimuli than comparison participants. Young adult offenders, regardless of victim sex, had larger relative responses to child stimuli than comparison participants. Using a cut score of 0 (indicating equal or greater arousal to children than to adults), sensitivity was 42% for adolescents with any male victims, and specificity was 92% for the comparison participants. Results suggest phallometric testing can identify pedophilic interests among these adolescent sex offenders.     

Effects of erotic stimuli on sexually functional and dysfunctional women: Multiple measures before and after sex therapy

A group of 11 women entering sex therapy for treatment of low arousal, and a comparison group of 11 women experiencing no arousal deficit, viewed an erotic film, listened to an erotic audiotape, and engaged in sexual fantasy during two experimental sessions. Session I occurred pre-treatment for the low arousal group. Session II occurred post-treatment. The adequate arousal group was tested at comparable points in time. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-rating and physiologically by a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Contrary to expectation, the two groups showed equivalent significant increases in physiological response during the erotic stimuli in both sessions. However, the adequate arousal group rated subjective arousal significantly higher than the low arousal group in Session I, while no difference was found between the groups in Session II. Significant correlations were present between physiological response and ratings of several affective reactions to the audiotape, though few significant correlations were found between physiological and subjective sexual arousal measures. These data indicate a discrepancy between genital responses and ratings of sexual arousal for which several interpretations are offered.     

The Problem of the Condition of Arousal of the Pure Sensation of Cutaneous Pain

In order to develop scales representing curiosity-arousing components of pictures (slides) of either common objects or random shapes, a total of 56 college student Ss rated both sets of material on nine dimensions. Factor analyses indicated that the nine dimensions could be reduced to two factors. In order to test the ability of these factors to predict memorial performance and exploratory behavior, an additional 80 undergraduates were then tested for recognition or free looking time (FLT) of either object or random shape slides. Separate regression equations, using FLT and recognition performance as criterion measures, were computed. The present results not only indicate stability in visual exploratory scaling plus redundancy among various attributes of visual stimuli, but also suggest that behavior can be considered as elicited by two separate attributes of visual stimuli.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF PREORGASMIC RECONDITIONING AND POSTORGASMIC DECONDITIONING

The effects of pre- and postorgasmic presentation of moderately erotic cues were assessed in an analogue study. Eight heterosexual male volunteers (18 to 23 years) participated in three assessment (baseline, termination-of-treatment, and two- to three-month followup) and eight masturbatory conditioning sessions. Three slides of nude females of initially equal erotic value were paired respectively with the plateau, refractory, and resolution phases of the subjects' sexual cycles. Over treatment, stimuli paired with the plateau phase increased significantly in penile tumescence indices of eroticism; conversely, stimuli paired with the refractory phase decreased significantly. The conditioned effects on tumescence were largely extinguished at followup. While treatment did not alter short-term subjective indices of eroticism, stimuli presented during the refractory phase were rated significantly less erotic than the other stimuli at followup. The findings suggest that the “pairing” model of orgasmic conditioning is insufficient to account for previously reported clinical findings. A broader conceptualization of the mechanisms of orgasmic conditioning, and implications for treatment are discussed.     

Response scale transfer for visual speed

By reversing the presentation order and frequency of stimuli between two series of trials, we studied how the category scale for visual speed is transferred across stimulus contexts. Participants judged five stimulus speeds, using three categories (slow, moderate, and fast). In Experiment 1, mainly frequent speeds (either low or high) occurred on the initial trials. This manipulation produced divergent preshift ratings for identical stimuli. Although subsequent reversal of stimulus context resulted in a reversal of scales, the adjustment was incomplete: The postshift ratings did not match the comparable preshift ones. In Experiment 2, mainly infrequent speeds were presented initially. Now the preshift ratings coincided, but higher postshift ratings occurred with the frequent high-speed rather than with the frequent low-speed stimuli. We conclude that with transfer into a new context, the spontaneous adjustment of response scale is determined (1) by the preshift primacy and the postshift frequency effects and (2) by the preshift frequency effect extended to the postshift trials.     

The perception of erotic arousal in men and women by same- and opposite-sex peers

Recent empirical evidence suggests that males and females differ very little in their response to erotica. Yet public opinion suggests that there are indeed differences: perceived differences. The present study explored two possibilities why these perceived differences continue to exist. One basis for such differences would be that both males and females see males as being more aroused (or arousable) by erotic stimuli, that is, a pure gender stereotype. A second possibility, suggested by Griffitt (1973), is that individuals who are asked to indicate how they think others would respond depend primarily on a projection process to make these attributions. The results of the study suggest that the latter process is more typical of males than of females; and that the former process is partially true for females, who tend as well to view all others (males and females) as being more aroused by erotic stimuli than they themselves are.This research was supported in part by Research Grant MH 16351-02 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the second author and is based in part on a paper delivered at the International Conference on Love and Attraction, Swansea, Wales, 1977. The authors wish to thank Glenn Littlepage and Rita Steifel for their assistance.     

Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect

The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. Two variants of psi are precognition (conscious cognitive awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. Precognition and premonition are themselves special cases of a more general phenomenon: the anomalous retroactive influence of some future event on an individual's current responses, whether those responses are conscious or nonconscious, cognitive or affective. This article reports 9 experiments, involving more than 1,000 participants, that test for retroactive influence by "time-reversing" well-established psychological effects so that the individual's responses are obtained before the putatively causal stimulus events occur. Data are presented for 4 time-reversed effects: precognitive approach to erotic stimuli and precognitive avoidance of negative stimuli; retroactive priming; retroactive habituation; and retroactive facilitation of recall. The mean effect size (d) in psi performance across all 9 experiments was 0.22, and all but one of the experiments yielded statistically significant results. The individual-difference variable of stimulus seeking, a component of extraversion, was significantly correlated with psi performance in 5 of the experiments, with participants who scored above the midpoint on a scale of stimulus seeking achieving a mean effect size of 0.43. Skepticism about psi, issues of replication, and theories of psi are also discussed.     

Erotic Transference and Its Relationship to Childhood Seduction

The phenomenon of an erotic transference has long been a difficult, if not mysterious, process within clinical psychoanalysis. Traditionally, the development of an erotic transference has been viewed as a negative clinical event fueled by the analyst's countertransference reaction. A much neglected dimension, the relationship between childhood seduction and the development of an erotic transference, will be introduced and examined. In three clinical cases our data suggest that actual sexual abuse in childhood is a causal factor in the manifestation of an erotic transference in the clinical interaction of an analysis.     

Selective attention determines emotional responses to novel visual stimuli

Distinct complex brain systems support selective attention and emotion, but connections between them suggest that human behavior should reflect reciprocal interactions of these systems. Although there is ample evidence that emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, it is not known whether attention influences emotional behavior. Here we show that evaluation of the emotional tone (cheery/dreary) of complex but meaningless visual patterns can be modulated by the prior attentional state (attending vs. ignoring) used to process each pattern in a visual selection task. Previously ignored patterns were evaluated more negatively than either previously attended or novel patterns. Furthermore, this emotional devaluation of distracting stimuli was robust across different emotional contexts and response scales. Finding that negative affective responses are specifically generated for ignored stimuli points to a new functional role for attention and elaborates the link between attention and emotion. This finding also casts doubt on the conventional marketing wisdom that any exposure is good exposure.     

Musical scales and evaluations of happiness and awkwardness: effects of pitch, direction, and scale mode

Participants rated the perceived happiness, brightness, awkwardness, pitch velocity, and tempo change of ascending and descending musical scales in four modes (natural, melodic, and harmonic minor modes and the major mode). Only minor differences between ratings of natural, harmonic, or melodic minor scales or between ratings of parallel and relative major scales were found. Ascending scales were rated as happier, brighter, and more accelerating than were descending scales; ascending minor scales were rated as faster and more awkward than were descending minor scales. Musical keys in each mode were compared, and significant differences were found. Musical keys that started on a higher pitch were rated as happier, brighter, and faster and as speeding up more than were keys that started on a lower pitch. The data were consistent with previous findings and suggest that pitch and direction (contour), rather than mode or key, influence listeners' judgments of musical stimuli.     

On theoretical and realizable ideal conditions in psychophysics: Magnitude and category scales and their relation

By spacing 10 stimuli (white noise) between 40 and 110 dB according to two criteria [equal response ambiguity (ERA) and equal discriminability (ED)], an attempt was made to construct an “ideal” case for magnitude estimation and category rating. The “ideal” case is defined by linear and constant Weber functions (SDs as a function of scale values) for the two scales, respectively. Altogether, three group and two individual magnitude and category rating experiments were run with these two spacings. It was found that the ERA spacing approximated the ideal case well for both Weber functions and the ED spacing only for the Weber function of the category scale. The general psychophysical differential equation that relates scale values and Weber functions for the two scales allowed good prediction of the category scales from the magnitude scales and the Weber functions. The data suggested a distinction between phenotypic (empirical) and genotypic Weber functions, analogous to “real” and “ideal” cases in physics.