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The study examined the extent to which skin conductance (SC), heart rate (HR), and respiration rate (RR) indexes indicated similarities and differences among arousal patterns to direct aversive stimulation, observing another experiencing the situation, and imagining oneself in the situation. Holding ones hand in 2 ° C. water provided the aversive situation. 36 male and 36 female unselected undergraduates underwent the 3 experiences in balanced orders. The results indicated that the direct experience was the most arousing, but the imaginative and vicarious experiences could not be clearly distinguished from one another when the magnitude of change was considered. Qualitative differentiation appeared in HR changes with the direct and imagined experiences producing HR acceleration and the vicarious experience producing deceleration. The implications of the findings for desensitization procedures and social learning theory were discussed. The process whereby emotional responses and avoidance behaviors are learned, maintained, and eliminated has been studied extensively
Kenneth D. Craig (Sun,) studied this question.