Abstract
Eighteen male volunteer college students, 18 to 28 years old, participated in an experiment to determine if humans could be trained to change the surface temperature of their right hand and, if so, to determine the specificity of the response. Training occurred over two successive 1-h daily sessions, and feedback consisted of a digital display. The results showed that subjects could learn to increase/decrease surface temperature under conditions of contingent feedback/ reinforcement. Further, the response was somewhat specific and no general autonomic changes were observed to accompany the acquired temperature change.
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References
Taub, E., & Emurian, C. S. Feedback-aided self-regulation of skin temperature with a single feedback locus. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 1976, 1, 147–168.
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Elder, S.T., Frentz, K.G. Operant control of surface body temperature. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 12, 53–54 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329622
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329622