Cardiovascular and Electrodermal Responses Conditioned to Fear‐Relevant Stimuli

This study examined heart rate, finger pulse volume, and skin conductance responses in subjects conditioned to fear‐relevant (snakes and spiders) and fear‐irrelevant (flowers and mushrooms) slide stimuli by an electric shock unconditioned stimulus. A differential conditioning paradigm with an interstimulus interval of 8 sec was used. There were 4 habituation, 8 acquisition, and 20 extinction trials with each of the two cues. The results demonstrated reliable acquisition for finger pulse volume and skin conductance responses, with superior resistance to extinction for the fear‐relevant conditioned stimuli. The heart rate data showed no differentiation between reinforced and nonreinforced cues during acquisition and extinction, and no effect of fear‐relevance. This discrepancy between skin conductance and finger pulse volume responses, on the one hand, and heart rate, on the other, was interpreted as due to differences in innervation, with the former measures mainly reflecting sympathetic and the latter parasympathetic effects.