Abstract
Twenty-two Ss estimated the magnitude of their urgency to breathe following restriction of breath for various percentages of individual breath-holding capacities. The conditions of breath holding were voluntary restriction and relaxed inhalation. No attempt was made to extend the degree of urgency into the aversive range. Under these conditions, the judgments obtained a power function having an exponent of 1.05. Sexual differences were not found, and the slopes of smokers and nonsmokers did not differ significantly. However, breath-holding capacity of smokers and nonsmokers differed significantly. On the basis of extrapolated thresholds, smokers appear to have lower urgency thresholds than nonsmokers. The ability of Ss to estimate lawfully the magnitude of such experiences suggests that the power function may apply to interoceptive intensive continua.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
KIMBER, D. C, GRAY, C. E., STACKPOLE, C. E., & LEAVELL, L. C. Textbook of anatomy and physiology. New York: Macmillari, 1955.
MITCHELL, P. H. A textbook of general physiology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
STEVENS, S. S. Problems and methods of psychophysics. Psychological Bulletin, 1958, 54, 177–196.
STEVENS, S. S. Neural events and the psychophysical law. Science, 1970, 170, 1043–1050.
SULLIVAN, R. Magnitude estimation and relative aversiveness of anxiety: Phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1971, in press.
TORGERSON, W. S. Quantitative judgment scales. In H. Gulliksen and S. Messick (Eds.), Psychological scaling: Theory and applications. New York: Wiley, 1960. Chap. 3.
WALKER, H. M., & LEV, J. Statistical inference. New York: Holt, 1953.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This study was supported in part by USPHS-NIH Grant MH-16434.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sullivan, R., Greifer, H. & Zenner, H. Magnitude estimation of breath deprivation. Psychon Sci 25, 361–362 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335906
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335906