Development of phasic heart rate patterns during recall and arithmetic tasks

Seventy-nine male subjects participated in an experiment to determine whether previously established individual differences in heart rate (HR) reactivity would affect the phasic HR variations which occurred during two different cognitive tasks, memory and arithmetic. Twenty trials of each task were given. Phasic HR pattern differences during the performance of auditory tasks had been reported by Lawler (1980) in subjects who differed in HR reactivity level. Lawler's reported effect was not replicated. The results were also compared to the results of Jennings and Hall (1980) who had reported data for a task which was analogous to the present memory task.