Level Of Emotional Arousal Research Articles

The effect of stress and task variation on formant location

The effect of psychological stress and of different task demands on the frequency, amplitude, and band width of formants in words spoken as part of a word recognition task was studied. Subjects were 39 medical assistants who took part in an experiment on the effect of arousal on speech performance. Subjects had to engage in two types of cognitive tasks with different demands on concentration and mathematical ability and had to describe two types of films, one film on pottery making with low stress inducing potential and one film on a surgical operation. Immediately after each of these tasks, subjects had to read out loud words which were presented at relatively short exposure times (to simulate a word recognition task). Vowels within these words were isolated and formant frequencies, amplitude and band width were measured using linear prediction formant estimation routines. The results are interpreted in terms of the inter‐speaker and intra‐speaker variability of formant data across different levels of emotional arousal and task demands.

Comparative studies of social behavior in Callicebus and Saimiri: male-female emotional attachments

Male-female attachments were compared in pair-housed titi monkeys (Callicebus) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri) by measuring emotional reactions (heart rate, vocalizations, locomotor activity) to short-term separation from the cagemate and to short-term caging with a relative stranger of the cagemate's sex. Titi monkeys showed somewhat higher levels of emotional arousal during separation than did squirrel monkeys, and they showed a much stronger response to the stranger. Moreover, only in titi monkeys did the test conditions significantly affect the level of emotional arousal during reunion with the cagemate. These findings describe a new dimension of the pair bond in Callicebus and suggest some of the proximate factors contributing to interspecies differences in social organization.

The physics of behavioral systems

A formal theory of behavior and emotion is outlined which relates an operationally defined psychological force field to the propensity for choice among alternative behaviors. The propensity is represented by a probability density which depends not only on the configuration of the force field, but also on the individual's level of emotional arousal. The level of emotional arousal is linked probabilistically to the individual's interaction history. The theory is formally analogous to the mathematics of quantum mechanics and its philosophical roots are traceable to the metaphysical cosmology of Whitehead; however, no attempt is made to justify it on these grounds. Instead, illustrative examples employing the theory are drawn from contemporary behavioral science data, demonstrating the efficacy of a probabilistic, field theoretic approach to behavioral modeling.

Level of Emotional Arousal in Laboratory Training

In order to study the level of emotional arousal produced by laboratory training, data from the highest level of a four-T-Group laboratory were tested against the following stress conditions from perceptual isolation investigations: 6 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours. Data were collected on a self-administering adjective check list which provided scores on anxiety, depression, and hostility. Anialyses of covariance were conducted, using prestress scores as covariates to provide statistical control in the absence of experimental matching of subjects. Laboratory training mean scores on anxiety, depression, and hostility for the four T Groups at the highest level (stress condition) were significantly lower than the mean scores from the stress condition of the three perceptual isolation studies. Comparison of the poststress frequency distributions for the four samples indicates that no scores occur for laboratory training at or beyond the point traditionally accepted as deviant (T score of 70 on the standardization sample for the instrument), whereas the stress condition of each of the three perceptual isolation studies produced scores at or beyond this point.

Discrimination learning in the South American tapir (Tapirella)

Strong position responses appear related to a high level of emotional arousal. Performance abruptly improved from a chance level after a very extended period.

Acute effect of psychologic stimuli upon plasma non-esterified fatty acid level.

Summary1. Serum non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and triglyceride (TG) levels were measured in four normal individuals during difficult levels of emotional arousal. 2. Periods of arousal in which feelings of anxiety and/or hostility were evoked were accompanied by rises in serum NEFA levels, but not of TG levels.