Psychophysiology by Andreassi John L

Author:Andreassi, John L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-135-68118-0
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Learning. Kahneman and Peavler (1969) measured pupil diameter in a verbal learning task. The learning trials were presented under conditions of either high incentive (5-cent reward for each item learned) or low incentive (1-cent reward). The high incentive items were more efficiently learned than the low incentive ones (55% vs. 18%), and they produced larger pupillary dilations (4.04 mm vs. 3.97 mm). In another learning study, Colman and Paivio (1970) measured pupillary activity during paired-associates learning. The abstractness of the words was varied, and subjects learned the pairs under standard memorizing conditions or using imagery as an aid. Pupillary dilation was greater under the standard, more difficult learning condition. The results also showed larger pupil size with the abstract word pairs that were more difficult to learn.

The studies reviewed in this section clearly show that pupillary diameter changes occur during information processing, and that the change is related to degree of mental effort required. The increases in pupillary dilation observed with heavy information-processing demands may be related to elevated CNS activity under higher load conditions. Beatty believed that the pupillary response provides a quantitative index of how much load is being placed on the nervous system.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.