Instrumental Heart Rate Responses and Visual Perception: A Preliminary Study

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Abstract
Five subjects (Ss) were trained to raise and lower their heart rates over a number of operant conditioning sessions. Geometric forms were superimposed upon the conditioned stimuli during the final operant training session. For the conditioning trials, Ss detected significantly more tachistoscopic stimuli during heart rate deceleration trials than during heart rate acceleration trials. During extinction trials, there were no differences in tachistoscopic recognition between acceleration and deceleration trials. The results are discussed in terms of Lacey's hypothesis concerning the instrumental effect of heart rate change on environmental attention.