Psychosomatic Medicine 17:208-217 (1955)
© 1955 American Psychosomatic Society

Use of Conditioned Autonomic Responses in the Study of Anxiety

¹ Fels Research Institute for the Study of Human Development, Yellow Springs, Ohio

In the experiments reported in this paper, the subject chain-associates for 15 seconds to each of a list of 40 stimulus words. After each of six presentations of one of these words, electric shock is administered. Although the subject is unaware of the relationship between word-signal and shock, as determined by intensive interview subsequent to the conditioning session, the subject's autonomic responses in the 15 second interval between hearing the stimulus word and receiving the shock reveal the existence of unconscious anticipation of shock. This unconscious anxiety is not limited to the conditioned word-stimulus itself but spreads to other words meaningfully related to the conditioned word. Subjects shocked after the word "cow" develop relative overreaction to other words with rural connotations. The development of such responses is very rapid, revealing the anxiety-proneness of humans.

The conditioning curves of aware and unaware subjects differ sharply. Aware subjects immediately develop a strong emergency response that does not grow as a function of the number of reinforcements, but instead shows gradual adaptation. Unaware subjects show typical conditioning curves at a much lower level of autonomic activity and discrimination.

The spread of anxiety as seen in curves of generalization seems greater at the unconscious than at the conscious level.

The chronic anxiety level of the subject may be related to the ease of acquisition and spread of new anxiety responses. Low anxiety subjects condition better but generalize less. This implies more accurate discrimination and appropriateness of response in low anxiety subjects.

The possibilities of using conditioning in the study of unconscious emotional processes are thus seen to be considerable.