THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STIMULUS INFORMATION, REACTION TIME, AND CORTICAL HABITUATION

ABSTRACT This investigation was an attempt to study systematically the effects of uncertainty, or stimulus information, on habituation rate. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions varying in uncertainty. EEG alpha desynchrony duration, electrodermal conductance change, and reacti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychophysiology 1970-11, Vol.7 (3), p.475-484
Main Authors: Orr, William C., Stern, John A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Arousal
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
EEG
Electrodermal response. (W. C. Orr)
Electroencephalography
Female
Galvanic Skin Response
Habituation
Habituation, Psychophysiologic
Humans
Orientation
Orienting response
Reaction Time
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT This investigation was an attempt to study systematically the effects of uncertainty, or stimulus information, on habituation rate. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions varying in uncertainty. EEG alpha desynchrony duration, electrodermal conductance change, and reaction time were the dependent measures. The results showed uncertainty to have no significant effect on any of the neurophysiological measures. There was a significant effect on the reaction time measure. There was no significant correlation between the EEG and electrodermal response measures, nor was there any correlation between either of these measures and reaction time. Results indicated that habituation could occur in the presence of cortical and behavioral arousal. It was concluded that information may be most meaningfully measured behaviorally and that habituation parameters are dependent upon the physiological system being measured.
ISSN:0048-5772
1469-8986
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1970.tb01773.x