Test of the preparatory adaptive response interpretation of aversive classical autonomic conditioning.

Abstract

24 undergraduates were differentially conditioned with light and tone as .3-sec CSs and shock as the .3-sec UCS. The trial series included interpolated UCS-alone trials, and UCS intensity was varied within Ss from .5 to 2.5 milliangstroms. The main purpose was to test the hypothesis, implied by the preparatory adaptive response (PAR) interpretation, that anticipatory GSR magnitude and the felt intensity of the immediately following UCS are, over trials, negatively correlated. The hypothesis, shown by internal experimental checks to have been adequately tested, was not supported. Another implication of the PAR interpretation was challenged by the failure of the signaled shocks to be rated as less intense than the unsignaled (UCS-alone) shocks, even though subjective intensity ratings were clearly sensitive to physical shock-intensity differences. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)