Electrical and circulatory responses to brief sensory and ideational stimuli.

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Abstract
The numerous attempts of psychologists, inspired by Wundt's tridimensional theory of feelings and by James's and Lange's theory of emotion, to find bodily activities corresponding to the psychological states reported by the subject have given conflicting results of doubtful interpretation. These attempts have, however, shown a fairly consistent relation between definite physiological activities and certain aspects of the stimulating conditions which preceded, and it is with such a relation that this paper is chiefly concerned. In this study, the immediate reaction to a sensory situation for which no cognitive activity is required is compared with the reaction to a symbolic sensory situation in which cognitive or other acquired associative activities are essential to produce the typical physiological effect. Seventy persons, most of whom at one time or another were associated with the staff of the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research served as subjects. Due to technical difficulties, such as imperfections in control and defects in registration, data from only about half this number are presented in this article. The physiological changes with which this study is chiefly concerned are the galvanic skin-reflex and blood pressure. In the early part of the study a wide variety of stimuli were thus presented to the subjects in controlled mixed order and the results were combined in a variety of ways in search for significant differences and uniformities of reaction. As a result of this exploration the classification of (1) slaps, sudden noises, etc., as sensory stimuli, (2) of such words as 'dog,' 'pencil' or such questions as 'Have you had lunch?' as indifferent ideational stimuli, and (3) of such words as 'love,' 'kiss,' or 'masturbation,' or such questions as 'Have you an inferiority complex?' as emotional or disturbing ideational stimuli was adopted. The results of this study may be summarized in the following statements. 1. Blood pressure and the galvanic skin-reflex may vary independently. 2. There is a general tendency for sensory stimuli to occasion larger galvanic and smaller blood pressure changes than disturbing ideational stimuli and, conversely, for disturbing ideational stimuli to occasion larger blood pressure rise and smaller galvanic changes than sensory stimuli. 3. There is a general tendency for disturbing ideational stimuli to occasion larger blood pressure and galvanic changes than indifferent ideational stimuli, and for this difference, as measured by percentage of the total change or as compared with the P.E. of the difference, to be greater for the former than for the latter measure. 4. Respiratory reactions tend to be different following the various stimuli and to be of such a character that they may contribute to differences in blood pressure. 5. Cardiac activity as indicated by pulse rate is increased more consistently by ideational than by sensory stimuli. 6. Cardiac activity as shown by the method of correlation is probably a consistent factor in the increased blood pressure occasioned by ideational stimuli but not in that caused by sensory stimuli. 7. Vasoconstriction as indicated by decreased peripheral volume is more marked following sensory than after ideational stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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