Abstract
Two alternative hypotheses (chronic vs. acute) about the nature of human anxiety, its relation to intensity of noxious stimulation, and its energizing effect in simple learning situations were examined. One group of Ss with high and one with low scores on a manifest anxiety scale (N=38) were conditioned to give a GSR to the CS “light”, with a 500 cps tone at 70 dB serving as non-noxious UCS. A tone of 500 cps at 90 dB served as noxious UCS for the other anxious and non-anxious groups (N=37). A significant interaction between anxiety and UCS intensity obtained both for generalization and for extinction measures. The results support the acute hypothesis which states that high anxiety scores reflect an “acute” rather than a chronic state of anxiety.
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Bringmann, W.G. A test of the chronic-acute hypothesis in semantic GSR conditioning. Psychon Sci 7, 349–350 (1967). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331118
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331118