Habituation and dishabituation of the human orienting reflex under instruction-induced stress

Abstract

Twenty subjects received habituation trials with a 1000-Hz tone until two consecutive non-responses (skin conductance response) occurred. Then a single, novel 1400-Hz tone was administered, followed by another presentation of the 1000-Hz tone. Half the subjects were told that an intelligence test would follow. All of the subjects were initially given the STAI trait anxiety test. The 10 subjects told to expect an intelligence test needed significantly more trials to habituate and made significantly larger SCRs to the novel stimulus than did the other 10 subjects. Trait anxiety neither interacted with these effects nor had any effects of its own. The absence of trait anxiety effects was interpreted as being in disagreement with Spielberger’s assertions regarding trait and state anxiety. © 1985, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.