The influence of psychoticism on classical conditioning

Abstract

The experiment to be reported is part of a research program into the role of factor-defined dimensions of personality in conditioning. In recent years, the personality framework has been extended to include an independent dimension of Psychoticism (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976). The present study was designed to examine the relationship between eyelid conditioning and the personality dimensions of Extraversion (E) and Psychoticism (P). Previous eyelid-conditioning studies in this laboratory have mostly been concerned with testing Eysenck’s prediction of a relationship between the dimension of E and conditioning (Eysenck and Levey, 1972; Jones et al., 1981). This states that introverts condition better because of their habitually higher level of cortical arousal, and the predicted relationship holds when conditions of testing are such as to generate inhibition of a sufficient but not supra-optimal degree. For inhibition to accumulate differentially in highand low-E subjects, stimulus parameters in eyelid conditioning include the following: weak unconditioned stimulus (UCS), partial reinforcement, and short interstimulus interval (ISI), i.e. conditions productive of minimal arousal. Under these conditions introverts condition well, while extraverts produce few. if any, conditioned responses (CRs) under conditions of high arousal, E condition as well as I, and sometimes even better, depending on the specific parameter values used. The latter findings have been explained by the concept of transmarginal inhibition, introverts under such conditions reacting as though responding to a subjectively higher level of stimulation (Eysenck and Levey, 1972). Such results emphasize that statements about effects of personality must be made in terms of the stimulus conditions employed to test them (see reviews by Eysenck, 1965 and Levey and Martin, 1981). The present experiment goes beyond previous research in that it considers the role of P as well as E, and also attempts to elucidate the contribution of Impulsivity. The place of Impulsivity within the dimensional framework has been extensively examined in recent years, alongside the development of the P scale and the revision of the E scale. In the most recent questionnaire. the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Impulsivity items have been largely removed from E. A new 63-item questionnaire of Impulsiveness (1,) has been developed which consists of three subscales: IMP (Narrow), Venturesomeness (VENT) and Empathy (EMP). VENT correlates most strongly with E, and IMP with P; both scales correlate positively with P as well as with E (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1978). High-P high-E people are therefore predisposed to be impulsive and venturesome. Empathy shows appreciable correlations only with Neuroticism (N), high N scorers being more empathic. These developments make it difficult to formulate specific predictions concerning the relationship between P and conditioning. Previous work has suggested that IMP accounts for the differential eyelid-conditioning performance of introverts and extraverts, while Sociabilitythe second subfactor in the dimension of E previously in use+ontributes nothing or very little