Abstract
Twenty Ss each attended, on four occasions at four times of day, on a random schedule. The times of day were 0700, 1100, 1500, and 2000 h. The resting EEG was recorded on each occasion during eyes-open and eyes-closed trials. The results were: (1) there were no general effects for the time of day nor any indication of an interaction between time of day and personality (extroversion-introversion and neuroticism); (2) the Ss maintained rank order for alpha abundance, within the group, over the four visits (p<.01); (3) extroversion was directly related to degree of variability across sessions (p <.05); and (4) alpha abundance was greater on the first visit than on the last visit (p <.05). These results demonstrate the within-S stability of the EEG and show that, for simple tasks of this nature, time of day has no effect on the EEG.
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This work was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council to the first author (reference G. 969/185C).
The authors wish to thank the Commanding Officer, Wessex Depot, Prince of Wales Division, Exeter, for provision of experimental Ss for this study.
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Gale, A., Harpham, B. & Lucas, B. Time of day and the EEG: Some negative results. Psychon Sci 28, 269–271 (1972). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328735
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328735