Dimensions of meaning in relation to the orienting reaction
Abstract
This experiment was conducted to determine whether measures of a phasic orienting reaction (OR) obtained for ~sin a verbal stimulation situation might be related to the dimensions of affective meaning. Osgood's Semantic Atlas and a semantic differential (SD) made up of 15 bi-polar adjectival scales were used to determine the dimensions of affective meaning. One hypothesis was that the affective meaning of a stimulus may be more important to the magnitude of aphasic orienting reaction than are the physical properties of a verbal stimulus. Another interest of the research was whether the concept factor scores, determined by the semantic differential technique, of some selected words could be used to differentiate subjects as high or low orienters. The concepts chosen from the Semantic Atlas were used to elicit the OR in an experimental situation. Subsequent to this the Ss rated 12 semantic differentials and filled in a debriefing questionnaire. Data were obtained for 4 physiological variables from 36 first year male university students. The data yielded frequency, latency, and amplitude scores which were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis, multivariate analysis of variance. The initial response to the first word in the experimental situation was used to divide Ss into a high orienting group (HOR) and a low orienting group (LOR). These two groups provided the criterion variable for a discriminant analysis of the evaluative, potency, and activity factor scores obtained from the semantic differential data. The results revealed that affective meaning is related to the phasic aspects of the OR. Words which are high and low in affective meaning elicit different levels of the OR than do neutrally affective words, when stimulus intensity is held constant. Further, the order in which the words are presented also affects the amplitude of the OR. The discriminant analysis results did not show that HOR and LOR groups had different SD factor score profiles. The results are discussed in relation to other findings. Precautionary statements were made about possible errors which can be introduced into a psychophysiological study by the experimental environment and the subjects. Comments were also made in regard to controlling errors in the study.
Description
Bibliography: p. 94-102.
Keywords
Citation
Birdwell, J. A. (1972). Dimensions of meaning in relation to the orienting reaction (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24190