Effects of suggestion on increasing or decreasing skin temperature control.

In a 2 x 3 factorial design, 44 college students were assigned the task of either increasing or decreasing their hand skin temperature, receiving either suggestions, pseudo-suggestions, or no suggestions (response-specific instructions only). Subjects receiving suggestions heard imagery phrases related to increasing or decreasing hand skin temperature; subjects in the pseudo-suggestion condition heard phrases related to electronics; subjects in the response-specific condition were told only to increase or decrease their skin temperature prior to training. All subjects participated in three training sessions. Analyses of the third session indicated a significant main effect for temperature direction and a significant interaction effect. A marginally significant main effect for suggestion was obtained. The results suggest that the ability of a subject to regulate hand skin temperature is influenced by the combination of required direction of change and type of suggestion. The data support the notion that pseudo-suggestions may act as a distractor which disrupts the ability of a subject to control hand skin temperature in both the increase and decrease directions.