Flaten M A, Hugdahl K
Department of Somatic Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway.
Biol Psychol. 1990 Feb;30(1):3-12. doi: 10.1016/0301-0511(90)90086-c.
Reflex modification (RM) is the inhibition or facilitation of a reflex response by a stimulus (S1) occurring prior to a reflex-eliciting stimulus (S2). The present experiment investigated two issues: (1) whether RM may be confounded by orienting generated by changes in the experimental procedure, or habituation generated by repeated stimulus presentations; (2) whether the strength of RM is influenced by repeated pairing of S1 and S2, that is, classical conditioning. Two groups of subjects were given two series of stimulus presentations. Group A received first 10 S2-alone presentations, before 10 S1-S2 presentations. Group B received the stimuli in reversed order, that is, first 10 S1-S2 presentations, and then 10 S2-alone presentations. This design permits a comparison of unconfounded with confounded RM, as well as assessment of influences of learning. The results showed RM to be influenced by orienting caused by changes in the experimental procedure. The strength of RM tended to be gradually reduced as a function of the number of S1-S2 pairing, indicating that the orienting response to S1 habituated across trials. It is concluded that RM may be useful in the objective investigation of more complex cognitive processes.
反射调制（RM）是指由在引发反射的刺激（S2）之前出现的刺激（S1）对反射反应的抑制或易化作用。本实验研究了两个问题：（1）RM是否可能与实验程序变化所产生的朝向反应或重复刺激呈现所产生的习惯化相混淆；（2）RM的强度是否受S1和S2的重复配对（即经典条件作用）的影响。两组受试者接受了两组刺激呈现。A组在10次S1-S2呈现之前先接受10次单独的S2呈现。B组则以相反的顺序接受刺激，即先进行10次S1-S2呈现，然后进行10次单独的S2呈现。这种设计允许对无混淆的RM与有混淆的RM进行比较，以及对学习的影响进行评估。结果表明，RM受实验程序变化所引起的朝向反应的影响。RM的强度倾向于随着S1-S2配对次数的增加而逐渐降低，这表明对S1的朝向反应在各次试验中发生了习惯化。研究得出结论，RM在更复杂认知过程的客观研究中可能是有用的。
