Verbal conditioning, task instructions, and inhibition of the GSR measure of the orienting reflex

One-hundred and twenty-eight college students participated in an experiment designed to examine facilitatory and inhibitory effects of instructions on the GSR index of the orienting reflex. One aspect of the study examined effects of instructions on verbal differential semantic conditioning of the aSR and conventional differential semantic conditioning requiring discovery of the CS-US contingency. A forewarned reaction time paradigm was employed with an innocuous imperative stimulus as the UCS. Reliable verbal differential semantic conditioning was obtained, as well as conventional differential conditioning. It was also found that orienting to one innocuous stimulus resulted in a significant decrease in the magnitude of the GSR induced by a second innocuous stimulus. An account in terms of inhibitory properties of orienting reflexes was proposed to account for the latter result.