Date of Award

1-1-1984

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The peripheral electrophysiological manifestation of different attentional systems was investigated by recording heart rate. Two groups were differentiated using the personality variable locus of control. Subjects were given a perceptual task, Navon figures, which had figures that differed on global and analytical features. A warning stimulus (x) cued the subjects to the beginning of each trial. Following this task subjects were trained on viewing line drawings in either a global or an analytic style. The global style required the subject to find the gist or overall theme of the picture and the analytic style required finding three objects in the picture. Directional fractionation of heart rate was expected to occur during each of these two parts. In the Navon task both groups decelerated and in the line drawings both groups accelerated. There were no differences in heart rate for type of stimulus (Navon) or type of task (line drawing). An analysis of the reaction time measure on the Navon task revealed that "same" stimuli were processed faster than "different" stimuli. Also, as the task progressed significant practice effects occurred. Subjects responded more quickly to the final block of 20 trials than to the first three blocks. A reaction time analysis for the line drawing task indicated that the analytic task took longer than the global one with the later trials being of significantly longer latency. Performance on the first task revealed that external locus of control subjects did better than internals. A post-experimental questionnaire revealed that the externals preferred a global style of processing and the internal preferred an analytic style of processing. A stepwise regression of characteristic physiological change for each subject on personality variables and cognitive style preferences showed a moderate relationship, with extraversion contributing the most variance. The regression suggests that extraversion contributes to deceleration in heart rate change to the experimental task (Navon figures).

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