Human Pavlovian HR decelerative conditioning with negative tilt as US: a review of some S-R, stimulus-substitution evidence

Abstract

Interest in human Pavlovian heart rate (HR) conditioning with conventional shock and loud noise unconditional stimuli has declined, as measured by reports in the literature. Accompanying this decline have been the following views: (a) that HR should be abandoned as a psychophysiological index of the psychological (learning) process of Pavlovian conditioning; (b) that, following psychology's shift to a more cognitive emphasis, the self-regulation (S-R), stimulus-substitution view of pavlovian conditioning is wrong, because there is no equivalence in direction between shock- and loud noise-induced HR-accelerative unconditional response and the conditional response. This paper reviews recent reports of human Pavlovian conditioning of HR deceleration with negative tilt as the unconditional stimulus. The results support an S-R, stimulus-substitution interpretation of conditioning. In addition, these studies have potential therapeutic application in the teaching of (medically desirable) HR deceleration, especially when Pavlovian procedures are combined with instrumental (biofeedback) ones. However, such physiological aspects of the decelerative unconditioned response as the degree of vagal involvement are difficult to investigate in the human preparation.