フィジカルコンピューティング機器を用いたストレス反応の測定

抄録

To evaluate the usefulness of physical computing method in psychophysiological experiments, instruments for measuring three psychophysiological indices, namely electrocardiogram, digital pulse volume and skin conductance were assembled using physical computing device (Arduino microcomputer) and some low-cost electronic components. Using them, cardiovascular and electro dermal responses of 12 undergraduates were measured during mental arithmetic (MA), speech (SP), cold pressor (CP), and mirror drawing (MD) task. In general, stress tasks increased heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC), and decreased pulse volume amplitude (PVA). Whereas MA and MD task induced moderate responses, SP task induced prominent responses in all indices. Only PVA showed significant change to all of four tasks. Lower HR reactivity in CP and MD task were consistent with previous studies. The reason for lower and delayed SC response to CP task was considered as a result of specific effect of local skin cooling. In general, these low-cost instruments were comparable in measured data to commercial available, expensive instruments. Not only functioning as a low-cost A/D converter, microcomputers thought to possess much potential in data preprocessing for varied purpose.