Effects of Stimulus Incongruity on the Galvanic Skin Response of Children and Adults

불일치(不一致) 자극(刺戟)이 아동(兒童)과 성인(成人)의 전기피부반응(電氣皮膚反應)(Galvanic Skin Response)에 미치는 효과(效果)

Despite evidence from adults that stimulus incongruity increased arousal level, there have been no published reports demonstrating this relationship with children. Therefore, the present study was done to 1) investigate the relationship between the introduction of stimulus incongruity and children's arousal level, using the GSR as an index of arousal; 2) determine whether age difference among subjects would affect the magnitude of the effect of incongruity on GSR ; and 3) determine the feasility of using the GSR with young children, particularly when manipulating a variable considered to involve only modest increase in arousal. The results were: 1) The incongrous outcome of two brief stories increased the arousal level of the subjects in the present study 2) The effect was related primarily in the GSR arousal scores of adult subjects. The smaller or nonexistent reactions to incongruity by the children represent essentially new results, as little or previous research exists involving the arousal level of young children to visual or auditorily presented stimuli. Several possibilities regarding the failure of the incongruity to generate arousal in the young children were considered Methodolog both in using GSR as an index of arousal level and in developing visual or audio stimuli involving incongruity was discussed.