Search

A review of the literature concerning heart rate and various forms of heart-rate variability and studies of behavior associated with these variables has been presented. Emphasis has been placed on the apparent discrepancies and inconsistencies reported within the literature as well as major methodological differences which make the integration of the data presented by various researchers almost impossible.

Spontaneous autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity (GSR) was recorded during rest, and frequency of horizontal eye movements was recorded during the viewing of two different dot patterns by 14 Ss. The same tasks were repeated after a 2- to 4-mo. period. ANS activity during rest was found to be quite consistent over time (rho= .75, p< .01) as were eye movements. The within-session rhobetween eye movements on the patterns was .30 (N.S.) for the first session and .76 (p< .01) for the second session. The rhosof eye movements obtained 2 to 4 mo. apart were .58 (p< .05) for a 6-dot stimulus and .77 (p< .01) for a 1-dot stimulus. When eye movements for the 2 conditions were combined, rhowas .78 (p< .01) between the sessions separated by 2 to 4 mo.

Heart rate variability in 13 male Ss was scored using three systems of measurement. Also, a test-retest situation was scored for the beat-to-beat coefficient of temporal variability (CVT). The three different techniques were significantly intercorrelated, while the test-retest correlation for the CVT did not reach the .05 level. It is suggested that the use of a beat-to-beat measure is more straightforward than the variability from a series of arbitrarily chosen time intervals.