A Study of the Emotions of Children with Particular Reference to Circulatory and Respiratory Changes

Pulse rate response of adolescents to auditory stimuli.

“…In this experiment the subjects were anticipating a 'severe electric shock' when the horn was sounded instead, so that the conditions were not comparable with other experiments in which sudden auditory stimuli were used. In a study of 25 boys, aged 7 to 12 years, Ray (15) found an increase of pulse rate in 8 cases, a decrease in 13 and no change in 4 following the stimulus of a dropping chair. The motor activity produced in the boys was so great that Ray discarded the records obtained during the first five seconds after the stimulus and counted the number of heart beats between the fifth and twentieth seconds after the stimulus.…”

“…In our experiments the decrease in pulse rate appears within 3 to 6 seconds after the stimulus. Because of the longer intervals over which most experimenters have counted pulse rates it is impossible to tell whether a brief period of cardiac inhibition preceded the acceleration reported (Gaskill (9), Ray (15), Skaggs (17,18), Springer (17)). The experiments of Beebe-Center and Stevens (1), in which heart rates were estimated from single beats, showed a brief inhibition or slowing of the heart in cats immediately after a disturbing stimulus was presented and prior to the marked acceleration which followed.…”

“…Although some investigators have reported cardiac slowing after sudden auditory stimuli (15,17), the majority have reported that sudden startling sensory stimuli result in cardiac acceleration of considerable magnitude (1,2,5,8,14). In many of these studies the stimuli were of such intensity that appreciable motor reaction occurred: thus, the cardiac effects may well have been a combination of the startle effect itself plus the metabolic and cardiovascular effects of the attendant motor activity.…”

A study of conditioned respiratory changes.

“…Respiratory changes following strong or emotional stimuli have been studied by Benussi (1), Blatz (2), Caster (3), Sears (16), and Ray (14), and such respiratory disturbances have been conditioned to signal stimuli by Scott (15) for the purpose of studying post-hypnotic amnesia, and by Lashley and Watson (17). In the present study, certain changes in the depth and regularity of breathing which occur as reactions to faradic stimulation were conditioned to the sound of a buzzer and to the operation of a finger vibrator.…”

Growth trends in emotional behavior.

“…In this case the visceral components of the fear pattern are present, but the necessary perceptual and motor functions are missing. In an experiment by Ray (82), twenty-five boys from grades three to seven experienced a sudden loss of support when a chair was abruptly dropped two to three inches. This sudden loss of support produced a definite pattern of physiological concomitants associated with the emotion of fear: increase in respiratory rate and inspiration/expiration ratio, increase in diastolic blood pressure, and the like.…”