Eaterbrook (1959, p. 194) proposed that anxiety serves to reduce range of cues or stimuli utilized and predicted that the total amount of information transferred through actions of an animal falls with increases in drive level. Using high and low scoring Taylor scale (1953) Ss, Pylyshyn and Agnew (1962) found no main effects of questionnaire anxiety on information transfer in an absolute judgment of distance task. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of shock and threat of shock on consistency and accuracy in a similar task. METHOD The stimulus display and dara coding were identical co chose used in a previous study (Pylyshyn & Agnew, 1962, pp. 412-413). Twenty-eight male university students served as Ss. Two conditions of noxious stimulation, shock and non-shock, and two conditions of exposure duration of distance to be judged (10 msec. and 1 sec.), were employed. All Ss received all conditions with order of condirions counterbalanced, i.e., each S made 80 judgments, judging 20 distances involved under four conditions: short exposure non-shock, long exposure non-shock, short exposure shock, and long exposure shock, with order effects balanced. Ss were run in pairs. A 4-min. rest period was introduced midway in experiment, after 40 judgments, during which shock conditions were reversed: non-shock Ss received shock instructions and had electrodes placed and rhe shock Ss had electrodes removed. Shock conditions involved placing electrodes on nonpreferred hand and instructing S that if he made more than four errors in each block of 10 judgments he would be shocked. Following each series of 10 judgments there was a 2-min. rest period during which E checked S's performance. An S operating under shock condition during first 40 judgments received a 225-v 30-msec. shock after judgments 10 and 30, while those Ss operating under shock condirions during second half received shock afrer Judgments 50 and 70. A continuous record of heart rate was taken for all Ss to monitor duration of effects of shock and non-shock conditions.