Effects of Task Incentive on Cardiovascular Response in Type A and Type B Individuals

ABSTRACT An experiment was conducted to investigate the interaction of task incentive and the Type A behavior pattern in determining psychomotor performance and psychophysiological responses during a verbal problem solving task. Twenty‐four Type A and 17 Type B subjects as determined by the structured interview were randomly assigned to a Monetary Incentive condition or a Non‐incentive Control condition. Results indicated that the presence or absence of explicit incentives affected task performance for Type As but not for Type Bs. Type As gave more responses more quickly when offered monetary reward. In contrast, the effects of incentive on cardiovascular responses were observed in Type B subjects but not Type As. Type As showed increased systolic blood pressure and heart rate and skeletal muscle vasodilatation in both conditions, while Type Bs showed increased heart rate and systolic blood pressure only when incentives were offered. Type Bs in the Control condition did not change significantly from baseline and actually tended to respond with a deceleration of heart rate and skeletal muscle vasoconstriction. The results are discussed in terms of the need to consider both the interaction of Type A with the nature of the task and the pattern of cardiovascular responses in future studies of psychophysiologic differences between Type A and Type B individuals.