Abstract
The present study aimed to examine the first hypothesis of Hodgson & Rachman (1974). Electric shock was used as an aversive stimulus, and heart rate and tapping pressure were measured as the indices of anxiety. Forty eight subjects were randomly assigned to each of the four experimental conditions consisted with two factors, namely, threat level of stimulus (high/low) and temporal uncertainty (no signal/count down). Anxeity indices were monitored during the anticipatory period. Main findings were as follows. (1) Heart rate and variability of tapping pressure seems to have relatively similar characteristic as indices of anxiety. (2) Difference of the threat level was not seen in the degree of synchrony between the two indices, but in the phase shift of it. This implies that desynchrony seen under low threat situation reported in the previous studies is a seeming phenomenon caused by time lag in the expression of responses representing anxiety.
