The relative efficacy of autogenic phrases and autogenic-feedback training in teaching hand warming to children

Abstract

There are few well-controlled biofeedback temperature training studies in the literature that have used children as subjects. The purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate whether children can learn to increase hand temperature, controlling for methodological factors that have been overlooked in previous experiments, and (2) to determine whether adding thermal biofeedback to autogenic phrases results in improved ability to produce voluntary increases in hand temperature over the use of autogenic phrases alone. Twenty-six subjects (ages 9–11) were divided into two groups of 13 subjects each. All subjects participated in four 35 to 45-minute sessions consisting of a stabilization phase, a training phase, and a post-training phase on 4 consecutive days. One group was trained to increase finger temperature with autogenic phrases only, and the other was trained with autogenic phrases plus thermal feedback. None of the subjects in either group learned to increase hand temperature significantly within sessions. There was a consistent and reliable decreasing trend within each session; however, finger temperature did increase (.27° F) for the first 8 minutes of the training phase. There was a significant increase in hand temperature from day 1 to days 3 and 4, and there were significant increases in temperature during the stabilization phase alone. There were no differential effects of treatments. Methodological issues concerning stabilization, the potential confounding effect of boredom and fatigue, and different training methods for children are discussed.