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ABSTRACT Heart rate was measured in four experiments using the cold pressor test, with the following results: (1) the heart rate rise between relaxation and stress levels was significant when the water was sufficiently cold (significant in 0°C and 5°C water, not 10°C); (2) the amount of heart rate rise in the normal waking state in 0°C water is unrelated to the hypnotizability of the subject; (3) there is a significant difference in heart rate following a hypnotic induction with suggestions of analgesia, although the reduction in heart rate rise is unrelated to the amount of reduction in felt pain; (4) heart rate rise during hallucinated pain in highly hypnotizable subjects is not significantly different from the rise recorded during normal waking or hypnotically analgesic conditions. These moderately confusing results take on some semblance of order if it is assumed (1) that the control of voluntary processes through hypnotic analgesia (agitation, grimacing) accounts for some reduction in heart response even though uncorrelated with reduced pain, (2) that the homeostatic and sensory‐information aspects of the cold water pain are probably little reduced, even though subjectively the pain may be absent altogether, and (3) the motivational‐emotional aspects of pain are more labile than the sensory‐discriminative aspects, in accordance with the Melzack‐Wall Gate Theory.
Hilgard et al. (1974) studied this question.