Autonomic Levels and Lability, and Performance Time on a Perceptual Task and a Sensory-Motor Task

Abstract

This experiment was intended to evaluate further an hypothesis in which perceptual and sensory-motor performances were considered to be influenced by autonomic processes via autonomic regulation of cortical activity. For this purpose, lability and level measures of sudomotor activity and heart rate were obtained during rest and performance in 54 male Ss. The hypothesis was consistently supported in 7 significant or near-significant correlations out of a possible 14. Faster performance time on the sensory-motor task was found with Ss having low resting heart rate, increased heart-rate variability during performance, and low levels of skin resistance. Faster performance time on the perceptual task was found in Ss with a high frequency of GSR activity during performance. Also, an interaction effect was suggested between some of the autonomic measures, being most pronounced in the perceptual task.