Differential conditioning and level of anxiety.

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Abstract
An experiment was conducted to provide further evidence on simple and differential eyelid conditioning in high-anxious and low-anxious Ss. Each S received 50 conditioning trials with a 500-cycle tone as the positive CS. On Trials 51-100 the positive CS and the negative CS, a 5000-cycle tone, were each presented 25 times in a prearranged order. The interval between the positive CS and the UCS, a 1.0 lb./sq. in. air puff, was 490 msec. The UCS was omitted following the negative CS. Excitatory strength to the positive CS during both conditioning and differential condition was significantly greater for the high-anxious subjects. Excitatory strength to the negative CS was also greater for the high-anxious SS; and the high-anxious Ss showed better discrimination (i.e., a greater difference in excitatory strength between the positive and negative CS) than did the low-anxious Ss. Though these latter results were not statistically significant, the differences in differentiation agree with previous results from this laboratory. These findings are consistent with expectations based on Hull''s theory of the relation of drive and habit and are clearly contrary to the hypothesis proposed by Hilgard, Jones, and Kaplan that high-anxious Ss will show less discrimination.