Skin conductance responses as predictor of emotional responses to stressful life events

Preferential preattentive processing towards threat has been proposed to play a casual role in the development of anxiety, mainly because it reliably predicts emotional responding to stressful events. However, in the investigation of the predictive value of preferential preattentive processing towards threat, the emotional Stroop task has exclusively being used. This study was designed to prospectively investigate the predictive value of skin conductance reactivity in response to masked (i.e., preattentively perceived) threatening pictures on emotional responding following stressful life events. To collect skin conductance data, the picture perception task was administered to 136 police recruits due to enroll into active duty within 2-4 months. To assess psychological distress following emotionally stressful life events, the impact of event scale were administered approximately 24 months later. Controlling for trait anxiety, analyses indicated that enhanced skin conductance reactivity in response to masked threatening pictures (relative to neutrals) was a strong predictor of emotional responding to stressful life events. This finding support preferential preattentive processing towards threat as a relatively independent factor predictive of emotional responding.     

Successful detection of verbal and visual concealed knowledge using an RT‐based paradigm

An increasing number of researchers are exploring variations of the Concealed Knowledge Test (CKT) as alternatives to traditional ‘lie‐detector’ tests. For example, the response times (RT)‐based CKT has been previously shown to accurately detect participants who possess privileged knowledge. Although several studies have reported successful RT‐based tests, they have focused on verbal stimuli despite the prevalence of photographic evidence in forensic investigations. Related studies comparing pictures and phrases have yielded inconsistent results. The present work compared an RT‐CKT using verbal phrases as stimuli to one using pictures of faces. This led to equally accurate and efficient tests using either stimulus type. Results also suggest that previous inconsistent findings may be attributable to study procedures that led to better memory for verbal than visual items. When memory for verbal phrases and pictures were equated, we found nearly identical detection accuracies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skin conductance as a function of alcohol during motor approach towards a noxious goal

During hand movement towards a goal involving electric shock, increased SCR amplitudes were observed for increased threat. In the presence as well as in the absence of alcohol, shock probabilities of 0.50 and 1.00 induced stronger SCRs than no-shock control conditions. The outcome was related to behavioural measures of hesitation where an alcohol dose of 0.9 g/kg reduced hesitation significantly. It was concluded that the cognitive appraisal of threat remained unaffected by alcohol, whereas fear as reflected by hesitation was reduced. A highly significant decrease in SCR latency was observed under alcohol conditions ( p <0.001). Twelve volunteer S s served as their own controls in the alcohol/placebo X shock probabilities X replicates design.     

Vocal affect expression as an indicator of affective response

This research is designed to validate the measurement of vocal affect expression as an accurate indicator of affective responses. Subjects who support legalized abortion read aloud either proattitudinal or counterattitudinal statements. Their recorded voices were digitized, standardized against their own baseline vocal parameters, and analyzed for differences in mean and range of fundamental frequency between the pro-attitudinal and counterattitudinal conditions. Subjects with strong initial attitudes exhibited the expected pattern of negative affect while reading counterattitudinal material. However, subjects with initial attitudes moderate in strength exhibited an unexpected pattern of negative affect when reading pro-attitudinal information. Written measures of the affective and evaluative components of attitudes toward: abortion and; a measure of mood were employed to validate the voice measure.     

Politicians' estimated height as an indicator of their popularity

Previous research has found that an electoral candidates' eight is correlated with their image. Many studies have found that height is a great asset for a candidate as height correlates with electoral outcome. In this research the previously obtained results were partially confirmed—in the first study the supporters of a given candidate estimated him as taller than his opponents (confirmed by six out of 10 candidates). The second study, conducted during the presidential elections in Poland, showed that electorate‐perceived height of candidates for the Presidency changed after the first phase of elections (confirmed by three from six main candidates). These changes in electoral‐perceived height depended more upon their electoral support than attitudes toward them. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The squeal as an indicator of aggression in mice

Fighting behavior of paired male mice was observed while automatic recording equipment counted the squeals. A strong positive relationship was found between the squeals and other measures of fighting. The results are discussed in terms of the validity of squeals as a measure of aggression and the usefulness of the squeal measure and the advantages it provides, i.e., the possibility of continuous monitoring of fighting behavior, elimination of O effects, less handling of Ss, and use of a “home cage” type of environment.     

The P600 as an indicator of syntactic ambiguity

In a study using event-related brain potentials, we show that the current characterization of the P600 component as an indicator of revision processes (reanalysis and repair) in sentence comprehension must be extended to include the recognition of syntactic ambiguity. By comparing the processing of ambiguous and unambiguous sentence constituents in German, we show that the P600 is elicited when our language processing system has syntactic alternatives at a certain item given in the input string. That the P600 is sensitive to syntactic ambiguity adds crucial evidence to current debates in psycholinguistic modelling, as the results clearly favour parallel models of syntactic processing which assume that ambiguity is recognized and costly.     

Evaluation of salivary thiocyanate as an indicator of smoking behavior

Salivary samples from three placement sites and under stimulated and unstimulated flow-rate conditions were collected from 36 participants (18 smokers, 18 nonsmokers) on each of 3 days. These samples were used to determine the best collection methodology for discriminating smokers from nonsmokers, the reliability of salivary thiocyanate (SCN) over days, and the stability of SCN given varying storage treatments. Results showed that SCN levels were significantly higher in smokers than in nonsmokers, in parotid site collections than either sublingual or mixed collections, and in unstimulated collections. Stimulated, mixed samples were reliable across days and were the best discriminator of smokers and nonsmokers. SCN levels did not differ under varying storage treatments. It is recommended that a standard methodology for collecting stimulated, mixed saliva be used when measuring SCN levels.     

Skin conductance and heart‐rate responses as indices of covert face recognition in preschool children

Covert face recognition was examined in 12 young preschoolers (age range 26–48 months) by comparing their autonomic functions to slides depicting former playmates from a family nursery school that the preschoolers had attended earlier with slides of their present playmates and unfamiliar children. While all preschoolers reported corroborated overt recognition of present playmates after the experiment, only three of them did so in relation to former playmates. The distribution of yes–no responses on the overt recognition task to former playmates was not significantly different from the responses to unfamiliar children. Nevertheless, the preschoolers evidenced increased skin conductance responses (SCRs) and more pronounced heart rate (HR) deceleration to the slides depicting former classmates compared to unfamiliar children. Thus, although the preschoolers' verbal responses did not differentiate between former playmates and unfamiliar children, their autonomic functions did. These findings suggest that young children can retain memories of past experiences in an implicit form without corroborated overt recognition. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The pupillary response as an indicator of arousal and cognition

Psychological research on the pupillary response since 1960 has focused on an arousal interpretation and a cognitive interpretation. Experiment 1 was an attempt to manipulate some arousal factors while controlling the cognitive demands of the task. Pupil size was cinematographically recorded while subjects who had different degrees of reported fear of snakes listened to passages describing imagined interactions with a snake in different proximities. There was also a set of control passages that made no mention of snakes but were otherwise semantically and syntactically identical to the aversive passages. The pupillary response showed no influence of the arousal manipulations, but rating and behavioral data indicated that the arousal variables had been effective. The cognitive demands of the task were clearly indicated by the pupillary response. In Experiment 2 two types of tasks were used: one that employed both arousal (incentive) and cognitive factors and another that had an arousal manipulation (threat of shock) but no explicit cognitive demands. The pupil response was recorded as well as heart rate, skin conductance, and EMG. The pupillary response showed an effect of the arousal manipulations only when cognitive demands were minimal. The results of both experiments are consistent with the view that cognitive demands take priority over arousal factors in affecting the pupillary response. Heart rate did show arousal effects that were not preempted by cognitive demands.     

Occupational physical activity as an indicator of health and fitness

Recent government guidelines suggest that simply increasing physical activity, regardless of mode, leads to improved health profiles. This study examined the relationship between amount of work-related physical activity of United States Forest Service (USFS) workers and 12 indicators of health and fitness. Subjects were 110 USFS workers recruited from 8 separate USFS ranger stations in the Pacific Northwest. The associations between work-related physical activity and indicators of health and fitness indicated the 63 workers who were physically active on the job displayed better overall health and fitness patterns as evidenced by higher aerobic capacity, lower body fat, and greater muscular flexibility than their 47 inactive peers.