Murray J B, Wright R A, Williams B J
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Int J Psychophysiol. 1993 Sep;15(2):135-45. doi: 10.1016/0167-8760(93)90071-v.
Female subjects performed 40 trials of an easy or difficult digit-recognition task while being exposed to intermittent presentations of a noxious noise. Half (high instrumentality) were told that, if they performed well, there was a high chance that they would work without noise in a subsequent trial period. The rest (low instrumentality) were told that, if they performed well, there was a low chance that they would work without noise in the subsequent trial period. Thus, a good performance insured either a high or low probability of alleviating the aversive stimulus. Results indicated that systolic responsiveness was proportional to task demand when the instrumentality of alleviative behavior was high, but low under both task conditions when the instrumentality of alleviative behavior was low. Reaction time and performance data were generally consistent with the view that these effects were due to group differences in task engagement, or 'active coping'. The main findings conceptually replicate and extend results from two previous studies that crossed difficulty and instrumentality manipulations. They also call further into question familiar theoretical conceptions that intimate direct effects of incentive value and perceived control on cardiovascular reactivity.
女性受试者在暴露于间歇性有害噪音的同时，进行了40次简单或困难的数字识别任务试验。一半受试者（高工具性组）被告知，如果她们表现出色，那么在随后的试验阶段很有可能在无噪音环境下工作。其余受试者（低工具性组）则被告知，如果她们表现出色，在随后的试验阶段在无噪音环境下工作的可能性很低。因此，良好的表现确保了减轻厌恶刺激的可能性有高有低。结果表明，当减轻行为的工具性较高时，收缩压反应与任务要求成正比，但当减轻行为的工具性较低时，在两种任务条件下收缩压反应都较低。反应时间和表现数据总体上与以下观点一致，即这些影响是由于任务参与度或“积极应对”方面的组间差异所致。主要研究结果在概念上重复并扩展了之前两项交叉进行难度和工具性操作研究的结果。它们还进一步质疑了一些常见的理论观念，这些观念暗示了激励价值和感知控制对心血管反应性的直接影响。
