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Psychosomatic Medicine 29:514-525 (1967)
© 1967 American Psychosomatic Society

The Measurement of Autonomic Arousal

Some Basic Issues Illustrated by the Covariation of Heart Rate and Skin Conductance

STUART P. TAYLOR PH.D.1 and SEYMOUR EPSTEIN PH.D.2

1 Psychology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.; Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
2 Psychology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.

Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate that there is no true relationship between such physiological measures as heart rate and skin conductance, but that (depending on circumstances) heart rate and skin conductance covary directly, inversely, or not at all. It is contended that a solution to the general measurement of arousal will not be found by transforming single measures, by innovations in data reduction, or by combining measures. Instead, the solution lies in learning more about the unique properties of different physiological systems by establishing how they vary as a function of the parameters of stimulus input--such as intensity, rate of stimulation, and time since stimulus onset.

Submitted on August 11, 1966






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Copyright © 1967 by the American Psychosomatic Society