Conditioning the Human Pupillary Response

Voigt, Walter H.

doi:10.2466/pms.1968.26.3.975

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…It is not clear whether or not the data for these individual subjects were evaluated statistically. Studies by Kugelmass, Hakerem, and Mantgiaris (1969) and Voigt (1968) report, on the other hand, no evidence for conditioning using light as the unconditioned stimulus.…”

Section: Classical Conditioning Of Pupillary Responsesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Psychological significance of pupillary movements.

Goldwater

1972

Psychological Bulletin

237

153

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Pupillary dilation, the light reflex, and spontaneous fluctuations in pupil size have been used as dependent variables in psychological investigations. A review of these studies provides evidence for the effectiveness of the pupil as an index of autonomic activity in psychophysiological research. Methodological problems in the pupillary literature are discussed, and directions for further research are suggested.Changes in pupil size are under the control of two smooth muscles in the iris. The sphincter pupillae, located in the stromal layer, is under cholinergic control, mediated via parasympathetic nerves from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus. The dilator pupillae, situated posterior to the constrictor muscle, is innervated by adrenergic fibers originating in the superior sympathetic ganglion. This set of opposing muscles exercises a fine but extensive control over the pupil; pupil diameter can range from 1.5 to more than 9 millimeters in man, and can react to stimulation in as little as .2 seconds (Lowenstein & Loewenfeld, 1962). Although pupillary movements, particularly the light reflex, have been studied for many years, their usefulness as indexes of psychological phenomena has recently begun to attract particular attention among psychologists. The aim of this study is to indicate, by means of a review of the literature, the ways in which pupil size may be employed as a dependent variable in psychological research and to examine some of the difficulties involved.Interest in the pupil as a psychophysiological variable has centered largely on pupillary dilation, and these studies are reviewed first. A few investigations have been con-1 This paper was originally prepared at Bowling Green University. It was supported there in part by MH Grant 13373, awarded to Harold Johnson.2 The author wishes to thank P. Badia and O. Smith for their review and evaluation of an earlier draft of this review. He is particularly indebted to his sponsor, Harold Johnson, for his continued support and helpful criticisms in preparing the final manuscript.Requests for reprints should be sent to Bram C.

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Section: Classical Conditioning Of Pupillary Responsesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Psychological significance of pupillary movements.

Goldwater

1972

Psychological Bulletin

237

153

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“…Watson described attempts to condition pupillary constriction in humans by using a strong light as the US; the results were inconsistent. Voigt (1968) has reviewed the history of pupillary conditioning for the 50 years following Watson's attempt. Two factors seem to explain failures to obtain pupillary conditioning: an insufficient US, and subjectivity in pupil measurements.…”

Section: Pupilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of response systems in Pavlovian conditioning reveals rapidly versus slowly acquired conditioned responses: Support for two factors, implications for behavior and neurobiology

Lennartz

Weinberger

1992

Psychobiology

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A review of the literature on aversive Pavlovian (classical) conditioning was conducted to determine whether various conditioned responses (CRs) develop at the same or at different rates. Statistical analyses revealed a bimodal distribution of the rates of acquisition of various types of CRs. Rapid acquisition (M = 5.7 trials to fIrst consistent CR) occurs for conditioned suppression and changes in galvanic skin response, blood pressure, respiration, pupil size, and heart rate. Slower acquisition (M = 71.3 trials) characterizes nictitating membrane, eyelid, and flexion CRs. Differences in conditioned stimulus intensity, unconditioned stimulus intensity, intertrial interval, and interstimulus interval between the two groups cannot explain the dichotomy. Studies of concurrent measurement of more than one type of CR further support the "fast/slow" CR distinction. The fIndings support two-factor theories of Pavlovian conditioning. The results are discussed with regard to various two-factor learning theories, and the implications for behavioral and neurobiological studies of learning are considered. RESPONSE SYSTEMS REVIEWEDThe responses that have been reviewed for this paper comprise the galvanic skin response; changes in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and pupil size; suppression of barpressing/licking; nictitating membrane extension; eyelid closure; and leg or tail flexion. In this section of the paper, we present a brief overview of each of these responses. This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of any system.

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“…Despite desirable characteristics such as resistance to habituation (Finke, Roesmann, Stalder, & Klucken, 2021), mixed findings when using pupil diameter as a dependent measure of conditioning have been noted (e.g. Reinhard & Lachnit, 2002; Voigt, 1968). Figures 4–5 (left side), showing subsets of 5 participant averages taken from individuals with low, average, and large effect sizes (within our sample of 51) for conditioned relative to unconditioned stimuli, demonstrate that not only the size, but also the overall direction of effect, could easily differ within smaller samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mathôt, Van der Linden, Grainger, & Vitu, 2013; Pandey & Ray, 2021; Privitera, Carney, Klein, & Aguilar, 2014; Strauch, Greiter, & Huckauf, 2018; Wang, Huang, Brien, & Munoz, 2020) but have yet to be considered in the context of aversive conditioning. As distinct dependent measures of human classical conditioning, pupil activity has a long record (Reinhard & Lachnit, 2002; Voigt, 1968), while conditioning effects on microsaccade rate are unknown. A recent meta-analysis of pupil response in classical conditioning studies (Finke, Roesmann, Stalder, & Klucken, 2021) has furnished effect size estimates for many study-level variables (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effects of Aversive Classical Conditioning on Pupil Dilation and Microsaccades

Friedl

Keil

2022

Preprint

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Unintentional shifts of gaze and the modulation of pupil size are both highly automated processes that serve to regulate the initial influx of visual information. The present work investigated these mechanisms as they came to differentially respond to initially unthreatening stimuli following aversive conditioning. The classical conditioning experimental paradigm employed simple grating stimuli (Gabor patches) shown individually at various (5) on-screen locations, one of which was paired with a noxious auditory unconditioned stimulus (US). Aversively paired Gabor patches elicited an attenuated initial constriction of the pupil (pupillary light response; PLR) along with more rapid re-dilation compared to otherwise identical but unpaired gratings. Modulation of both the PLR and the rate of re-dilation following conditioning showed pronounced individual differences. Rapid eye movements away from fixation (microsaccades) were suppressed for the aversively associated compared to unassociated stimulus locations at several post-stimulus latencies. Mutual information between pupil dilation and microsaccade rate, meanwhile, did not differ between the aversively associated and unassociated visual on-screen locations. Together, these results suggest that measures of pupil diameter and microsaccade rate supply complementary information on early-stage processes of associative learning through experience.

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Conditioning the Human Pupillary Response

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Psychological significance of pupillary movements.

Psychological significance of pupillary movements.

Analysis of response systems in Pavlovian conditioning reveals rapidly versus slowly acquired conditioned responses: Support for two factors, implications for behavior and neurobiology

Effects of Aversive Classical Conditioning on Pupil Dilation and Microsaccades

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