| Abstract: | Examined the effects of 2 heart rate (HR) control task instructions, 2 response-feedback contingencies (contingent, noncontingent), and practice on patterns of cardiac, respiratory, and somatomotor (forearm electromyogram (EMG)) responses. 40 undergraduate women, assigned either to 2 HR contingent or to 2 HR noncontingent (yoked control) groups, were employed in a mixed design in which the contingency and instruction variables were manipulated between Ss, and trials constituted the within-Ss variable. Task instructions were either to increase HR as much as possible or to increase HR specifically by 13 bpm, both within a 3-sec period. The former instructions led to a significant acquisition function in HR over the 70 trials and also to reliable acquisition functions in forearm EMG activity and respiration frequency. Instructions to increase HR specifically by 13 bpm likewise led to a significant acquisition function in HR control, in terms of approximation of the target range, and the HR changes in this group were also embedded in a complex of respiratory and somatomotor responses. Ss who received response-contingent feedback did not perform better on either HR task than those who received noncontingent feedback, nor did the contingency variable affect the overall patterns of responding to any convincing extent. (French abstract) (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
