There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

This thesis explored the effects of subject knowledge, therapist knowledge and repeated training trials upon the subjects' ability to raise their finger temperature within a biofeedback paradigm. Significant findings indicate that only in the double blind condition did "learning of the response" occur over the four training sessions. In the other three conditions the groups showed a consistent (though non-significant) increase in their finger temperature over pre-training measures with one exception in training session three. In this trial the single blind group produced a decrease in finger temperature resulting in a significant difference between the four conditions due to the subjects' awareness of the true physiological parameter being conditioned.

Previous research by Quails and Sheehan (1979, 1981b, 1981c) has found an interaction effect between absorptive capacity and relaxation in frontalis EMG biofeedback and no-feedback (instructions only) conditions. High absorption subjects were able to relax more completely under biofeedback conditions while low absorption subjects relaxed more ably under no-feedback conditions. They theorized that this outcome was the product of the attentional demand characteristics of these conditions. That is, attention demanding conditions were believed to interfer with the imaginal thinking of high absorption subjects, thereby disrupting relaxation. Low absorption subjects, however, were believed to utilized attentional demand to compensate for their limited attention deployment capabilities. In contrast, in reinterpreting these findings, Tellegen (1981) maintained that the mechanism underlying these results was not attentional demand, but was mental set (experiential or instrumental set). Both Qualls and Sheehan and Tellegen, nevertheless, agreed that biofeedback does not play an informational role.This study examined the relative contributions of attentional demand, mental set, and the feedback of muscle activity to the relaxation of high absorption subjects. Thirty-one male and female college students were distributed into three conditions: frontalis EMG biofeedback with instrumental set, metronome with experiential set, and nosignal (instructions only) with experiential set. All subjects were given six sessions of relaxation.Results showed no between condition differences in EMG output or imagery production either within or across sessions. The primary significant finding was a within sessions EMG reduction which occurred for all groups. It was concluded that attentional demand, mental set and the physiological information supplied by biofeedback play a limited role in the relaxation of high absorption subjects. The findings relative to the informational role of biofeedback were qualified by the possible operation of a floor effect, since normal subjects were used. Further, the findings relating to attentional demand, when' interpreted in light of Qualls and Sheehan's results, suggested that attentional demand may only be important in the relaxation of high absorption subjects when highly interfering. This followed from the assumption that the attentional demands used in the present study may not have been as interfering as those utilized by Qualls and Sheehan.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2006. Program in Neuroscience and Behavior. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-77).

The purpose of this study was to determine if right-side dominant college students who received thermal biofeedback from the dominant side of the body would learn the voluntary control of hard temperature faster than those who received feecback from the non-dominant side.The sample consisted of 60 volunteers from a large university in the 'Midwest. The subjects were randomly assigned to two treatment groups with 30 subjects in each group. In all, 38 females and 22 males completed the experiment. The subjects were not taking medication, nor did they have any past history of psychological treatment or any experience with biofeedback training.Treatments had previously been randomly assigned to groups prior to the assignment of subjects. Group one received feedback from the index finger of the right hand, and group two received feedback from the index finger of the left hand.The equipment used in this study consisted of two Systec, Inc., T2-P thermal trainers. The experimenter placed the thermistor of the instrument on the assigned index finger of the subject. Scotch brand transparent tape, 1/2 inch wide, was used to attach the termistor to the subject's finger and care was taken to insure that the tape did not restrict the flow of blood.The study consisted of five sessions, and each session was 20 minutes in length. The first session consisted only of 20 minutes of adaption to the treatment room and to the thermal trainer. The subject was instructed to relax during this period, and after five minutes of adaption the thermal. trainer was turned on; however, no feedback was provided to the subject. The temperature at the end of 15 minutes was recorded and defined as the subject's basal temperature.Sessions two, three, four, and five were identical to each other in time period design. There were five minutes of adaption and 15 minutes of visual feedback. The end-temperature was recorded for each of these sessions.The data were subjected to a two way analysis of variance with repeated measures on one factor. The F value obtained for the interaction between the locus of feedback and the performance for the number of sessions was not statistically significant at the .05 level. Therefore, the group that received feedback from the dominant side did not learn the voluntary central of hand temperature faster than the group that received feedback from the non-dominant side.In addition, there was no support for 2 informal hypotheses which were tested. There was no significant difference in performance between the dominant hard feedback group and the non-dominant hand feedback group. The number of sessions did make a significant difference in endtemperature scores. However, this hypothesis had not been selected for an a priori test and so it could not be rejected at the a priori .05 level of confidence. A Scheffe test revealed that the differences for the s' le marginal effects were not significantly different at the .05 level of significance.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Until recently psychologists taught that it was impossible to condition the autonomic nervous system and the smooth muscles and glands it controls by any other means than by Pavlovian techniques. In 1960, Kimmel and Hill demonstrated the possibility of instrumental conditioning of the galvanic skin response. Since then, there have been reports of learned control of a wide range of autonomic responses. In the present study, it was hypothesized that pupillary size with it's bi-directional autonomic innervation would be an excellent candidate for illustration of the same rules of conditioning by biofeedback training as has been demonstrated by other autonomic nervous system functions. A total of 10 subjects were split into 2 groups and randomly assigned to either a dilation training group or a constriction group. As hypothesized self-control of pupil diameter via the use of external feedback was demonstrated.