Lecture 3 - Psychological States Influencing SC

Question 1

What are the three factors influencing SCR?

Answer 1

1. Discrete Stimuli
2. Continuous Stimuli
3. Individual characteristics

Question 2

What is an OR (orienting response)? and is this discrete or continuous?

Answer 2

Our reaction to something in our environment

• Involves SCRs,
• Kicks in, in case of:
  
  • novelty
  • significance

discrete

Question 3

What are examples of sustained tasks?

Answer 3

Listening to noise, doing mental arithmetic, watching film clips, …

Question 4

What do responses to sustained tasks often look like?

Answer 4

Increase in SCL in anticipation of the task up to 1 microSiemens.
A steep increase at the beginning of the task, and then a gradual decay during the task

Measures arousal again –> effortful allocation of resources

Question 5

What is electrodermal liability?

Answer 5

It is a personal / individual trait where a person has high non-specific skin conductance responses and slow habituation.

Question 6

When do labiles outperform stabiles?

Answer 6

Generally labiles outperform stabiles in:

• Sustained viligence
• Perceptual speed
• Allocation of information processing
• Focussing attention on task

Question 7

What are electrodermal non-responders?

Answer 7

People that do not show skin conductance responses, being hyporesponsive
This is 10% of the normal non-pathological population

Question 8

What is interesting about hyperarousal and schizophrenics?

Answer 8

Hyperarousal is when people have high SCL and high SCR.

Schizophrenics with psychotic symptoms often show heightened EDA, however not when in a psychotic stage