FINGER-SWEAT PRINTS IN THE DIFFERENTIATION OF LOW AND HIGH INCENTIVE

The differential effect of incentive on finger sweating compared with the effects on various other physiological measures was investigated in a group of 59 Ss. Finger sweating (FS) appeared slightly superior to palmar conductance (PC) in discriminating between low and high incentive conditions, but heart rate (HR) and muscle potentials appeared to be the best of those discriminators used. Correlations between PC and visual ratings for FS were 0.65 and 0.69 for high and low incentive conditions, respectively. There were numerous significant correlations between physiological measures (at relatively low levels), but the two FS measures correlated only with PC and with each other. Correlations between physiological and performance measures were also obtained. On the one hand HR and electromyograms (EMGs), and on the other PC and FS ratings, differed with respect to the incentive conditions under which significant correlations with performance were obtained. In the main, HR and EMGs showed significant correlations with performance under low, and PC and FS ratings under high incentive. Further evidence for less sweating by dark-skinned Ss compared with light-skinned Ss was reported. (Author) Pub. in Psychophysiology v1 n3 p231-40 Jan 1965 (Copies available only to DDC users) Supported by DRB, NRCC, NIMH, and Army.