Heart Rate Change in Type A and Type B Males as a Function of Response Cost and Task Difficulty

Tonic changes in heart rate (HR) and somatic motor activity were monitored in 70 Type A and 70 Type B males to determine if these groups differ in psychologically‐mediated HR reactivity to a specific appetitive situation. A and B types were defined by extreme scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey. Subjects performed a continuous button‐pushing task during a practice trial and 4 trials involving high (loss of money), low (loss of points), or no response cost (RC) for performance failure, and high, moderate, low, or no levels of failure feedback on performance. Greater HR increases from practice were predicted for high RC vs. low RC, and for Type As vs. Type Bs. Additionally, in the high RC condition, HR was expected to diminish across trials more in those receiving high and low failure feedback compared with those receiving moderate failure feedback. Results confirmed the first two expectations. Furthermore, the HR difference between Type As and Type Bs was magnified under high RC conditions. The last expectation was not confirmed, but further analyses suggested that failure feedback influenced Type Bs but not Type As. Greater intrinsic appetitive motivation of Type As may account for their greater HR increase in response to opportunities for active avoidance, as well as for reward.