False physiological feedback and the maintenance of speech anxiety.

To assess the effects of physiological feedback during actual exposure to a feared situation and during a subsequent exposure, 60 speech-anxious subjects were exposed to one of five false feedback conditions during the second of three consecutive speeches: heart rate decreasing, no change in heart rate, heart rate increasing, and two control procedures. No anxiety differences were found among the groups on the second (feedback) speech. The heart rate increase group displayed significantly higher self-reported anxiety, overt anxiety signs, and speech disfluencies during the third (posttest) speech than the heart rate decrease and no-change groups. Initial exposure to the speech situation produced striking heart rate reaction in the total group, and repeated exposures continued to elicit strong, though gradually habituating, reactions.