Affective visual stimuli as operant reinforcers of the GSR

Attempted to determine whether affective stimuli could act as more potent reinforcers of spontaneous GSR activity than those previously employed. 10 contingent (C) male undergraduates were shown slides of nude females taken from a popular magazine each time they produced a spontaneous GSR. 10 noncontingent (NC) male undergraduates were matched on resting GSRs with C Ss and received the same number of reinforcers per minute as C Ss except at times when no GSRs were present. During conditioning the C group showed a substantial increase in frequency of GSRs, while the NC group showed a marked decrease. These differences were maintained during an extinction period. No differences were obtained for either heart rate or respiration rate during conditioning or extinction, although GSR level evidenced Group X Time interactions. It is concluded that the strength of a reinforcer is an important parameter which must be considered in operant studies of autonomic responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).