Responses to Ink-blot Configurations Resembling the Heart

A technique is described to measure an individual's awareness of the cardiac area. It utilizes three newly developed ink blots whose color-form configurations approximate the heart in various degrees. In the present exploratory study, projective responses were obtained from 68 nursing students. It was observed that their relative awareness of the anatomical connotations in the stimuli related to their past experience of psychophysiologic cardiac symptoms. The Moses Test of Extreme Reactions was used to analyze the data. This revealed upon calculation of the exact probability level a value of 0.0128 indicating that the symptomatic subjects fell more frequently at the extremes. It was hypothesized that these individuals respond to somatic anxiety by increasing or decreasing consciousness of their own heart.