Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: active coping in a social context

Previous studies have demonstrated that effortful attempts to secure positive outcomes or avoid negative outcomes produce significant increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR). Although these effects of active coping on cardiovascular reactivity are central in current psychosomatic theories, virtually all of the research to date has used impersonal, asocial tasks. Our two studies examined the cardiovascular effects of effortful attempts to influence other people. In Study 1, male subjects attempting to influence the opinions of their discussion partner to improve their own chances of winning money displayed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity. In Study 2, we obtained similar effects on SBP and DBP reactivity in men and women, while both preparing an influence attempt and making that attempt. Furthermore, reactivity levels were larger as the magnitude of incentive for successful persuasion increased. Implications of this interpersonal equivalent of active coping for the development of cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Relations between anger expression and cardiovascular reactivity: reconciling inconsistent findings through a matching hypothesis

Previous psychophysiological research has demonstrated that both anger expression and anger suppression are related to cardiovascular responses, but in an inconsistent fashion. The present study tested the following hypotheses: (a) that the influence of anger expression style on psychophysiological responses would be limited to Ss exposed to an anger instigation, and (b) that the specific pattern of psychophysiological responses would vary as a function of whether Ss were induced to use their preferred vs. nonpreferred mode of anger expression style in response to the instigation. Seventy-eight male college undergraduates were randomly assigned to work on a task with either an annoying or a pleasant confederate and subsequently to write either a negative or a positive evaluation of the confederate. Blood pressure was measured intermittently and heart rate continuously throughout task performance and a subsequent 15-min rest period. Ss' preferred method of anger expression had been previously assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Systolic blood pressure results generally were consistent with the hypotheses. Implications of the findings for the etiology of cardiovascular diseases are discussed.     

Timing multimodal events in pigeons

The peak procedure was used in two experiments to study pigeons' ability to time multimodal events. In the first experiment, birds were trained to time a single event consisting of a 9-s tone or light followed by a 21-s fixed interval associated with a signal of light or tone (signal of the other modality). On occasional empty trials, different lengths of the first signal were followed by a long period of the second signal. Peak response times as a function of the duration of the first signal were linear and had a slope of close to one in all birds. This indicates that the birds were timing only the second signal. In a second experiment, two complex events were used in training. One consisted of a 9-s tone or light followed by a 21-s fixed interval associated with a light or tone. The other consisted of a 21-s tone or light followed by a 9-s fixed interval associated with a light or tone. Different durations of the first signal were again used on empty trials. Peak response times as a function of the duration of the first signal were again linear in all birds. The slope of the function was less than one but greater than zero for 3 birds. This indicates that these birds were partly timing the entire complex event of 30-s duration and partly timing only the second signal of the event. A model is proposed in which the bird takes as a criterion for timing a weighted average of different target criteria. Comparisons with the performance of rats are made.     

Functional classes and equivalence relations

Three adult subjects were taught a set of two-choice simultaneous discriminations, with three positive and three negative stimuli; all possible combinations of positive and negative stimuli yielded nine different pairs. The discriminations were repeatedly reversed and rereversed, the former positive stimuli becoming negative and the former negative stimuli becoming positive. With all subjects, a reversal of the contingencies for one pair of stimuli became sufficient to change their responses to all of the other pairs. The reversals had produced functional stimulus classes. Then, all subjects showed conditional discriminations emerging between members of a functional class; given a sample from one class and comparisons from both classes, they selected the comparison that was in the same class as the sample. Next, 2 of the subjects showed that the within-class conditional relations possessed the symmetric and transitive properties of equivalence relations; after having been taught to relate new stimuli to existing class members, the subjects then matched other class members to the new stimuli. Subsequent tests of two-choice discriminations showed that the conditional discriminations had transferred functional class membership to the new stimuli. The 3rd subject, who did not show equivalence relations among functional class members, was also found to have lost the within-class conditional relations after the equivalence tests.     

Form and exploration of mechanical stability limits in erect stance

The stability limits of erect stance are described as a geometrical structure in a movement space. Mechanical properties and response latency, a neural property, are determining factors for the stability limits. Standing stability limits of adults and young children are compared, and a simple scheme is suggested by means of which infants can discover the stability limits as they learn to stand. The mechanics of different standing movements are discussed because their spatial temporal properties relate directly to their different stability limits. The combination of the stability limits for different movements gives a total set of stability limits, a different structure for adults than for children.     

On task and theory specificity

One of the significant limitations of the motor control and skill acquisition domain is that the theories, models, and hypotheses are, in most cases, task specific. Many lines of theorizing fail to hold up under even small changes in task constraints, although clearly the field does have some robust phenomena. It is proposed that a broader consideration of the role of task constraints, which is grounded in the methodology of nonlinear dynamics, may help to formulate a more general action theory of coordination and control.     

Skill, strength, handedness, and fatigue

Thirty male subjects, 20 of whom were self-classified left-handers and 10 right-handers, were tested on a grip-strength task and a handwriting task with each hand, both under normal conditions and in a situation of induced experimental fatigue. On the basis of questionnaire scores, the left-handers were sub-divided into two groups comprising the 10 most left-handed and the 10 least left-handed subjects. The test of grip strength showed a small but significant deterioration in performance of both hands from fatigue. With the handwriting task, a similar significantly adverse effect of fatigue was recorded for all groups as well as a large significant difference in performance between the preferred and nonpreferred hands under normal conditions, which decreased under fatigue. An explanation of these differential effects is discussed in terms of the greater efficiency of the preferred hand in the highly developed skill of handwriting.     

Cheating following success and failure in heavy and moderate social drinkers

Two groups of American undergraduates (moderate and heavy social drinkers) completed a matrix task and received either positive or negative feedback on their performance. Following this they were given a maze task, which was designed so that cheating could be detected. Heavy drinkers cheated more than moderate drinkers under success conditions (positive feedback). Heavy drinkers who received positive feedback also cheated more than heavy drinkers who received negative feedback. The results are interpreted in terms of self-handicapping theory.