Heslegrave R J, Furedy J J
Biol Psychol. 1978 Nov;7(3):147-66. doi: 10.1016/0301-0511(78)90009-1.
Five groups of 10 undergraduate subjects each participated in an experiment to examine the effects of perceived control over, and the probability of occurrence of, noxious (white-noise) stimulation on anticipatory heart rate (HR) deceleration. All groups performed an arithmetic task, the numbers for which were changed on each of the 20 trials, but three groups were defined as active groups since they were instructed that the occurrence of noxious stimulation was contingent upon their performance on the task. The actual probability of occurrence of noxious stimulation (i.e., either 0.9, 0.5 or 0.1) was manipulated between these three groups. A fourth (passive) group (0.5 probability of occurrence) was instructed as to the non-contingent relationship between performance and the aversive white noise. The last group was a control group which only performed the task, and thus both provided an estimate of the rate of return to baseline following the expected HR acceleration to the task and eliminated the need for a within-subject control period to assess HR deceleration. The results indicated that all active and passive groups produced significant HR decelerations, relative to the control group, prior to the noxious stimulus. However, all active groups (regardless of probability levels) displayed significantly greater, and required more trials to maximally develop, anticipatory deceleration than the passive group. In addition, the results for the active groups revealed a direct relationship between the probability of occurrence of noxious stimulation and the magnitude of anticipatory deceleration. It is argued that the results cannot be adequately accommodated by the preparatory-adaptive-response theory. A deployment-of-attention account is suggested since it appears both to account for the obtained pattern of results completely and to generate additional testable predictions for the future.
五组受试者，每组10名本科生，参与了一项实验，以检验对有害（白噪声）刺激的可感知控制以及其发生概率对预期心率（HR）减速的影响。所有组都执行一项算术任务，在20次试验中的每次试验中数字都会改变，但三组被定义为主动组，因为他们被告知有害刺激的发生取决于他们在任务上的表现。在这三组之间操纵有害刺激实际发生的概率（即0.9、0.5或0.1）。第四组（被动组，发生概率为0.5）被告知表现与厌恶白噪声之间的非依存关系。最后一组是对照组，只执行任务，因此既提供了对任务预期心率加速后恢复到基线速率的估计，又消除了评估心率减速所需的受试者内对照期。结果表明，相对于对照组，所有主动组和被动组在有害刺激之前都产生了显著的心率减速。然而，所有主动组（无论概率水平如何）都表现出比被动组显著更大的预期减速，并且需要更多试验才能最大程度地发展预期减速。此外，主动组的结果揭示了有害刺激发生概率与预期减速幅度之间的直接关系。有人认为，预备适应性反应理论无法充分解释这些结果。提出了一种注意力分配的解释，因为它似乎既能完全解释所获得的结果模式，又能为未来产生额外的可测试预测。
