A psychophysiological procedure is described for obtaining time locked autonomic responses to specific internal (thought) stimuli in the absence of different external (environmental) stimuli. The procedure is illustrated by a heart rate experiment in which 10 Ss silently generated numbers followed by letters or affect‐laden words, all in synchrony with externally paced tones. The shape of the cardiac response was found to be a function of the specific thought sequence. The data are interpreted as demonstrating that specific thoughts can act as potential stimuli of autonomic responses. General implications of the finding and the procedure are considered.
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Gary E. Schwartz (1971) studied this question.