Abstract
Absolute and difference thresholds of n-octanol were determined for 30 college students scoring at extremes of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. High-anxious Ss produced significantly higher absolute thresholds and more reversals than low-anxious Ss. In the difference threshold task, high-anxious Ss responded within a narrower area of uncertainty, but points of subjective equality did not differentiate the groups. Also, the number of low anxious reversals incr eased in the second task to a level similar to tha t of high anxious Ss. Absolute and difference thresholds were not correlated, and response latencies were comparable across groups and tasks. Results were discussed in terms of predictions derived from Hull’s multiplicative drive theory (Brown, 1961).
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This research was supported by Grant 07-2268 from the Rutgers University Research Council to the senior author. We thank Linda Ciricillo and Albert Goss for assistance in data collection and analysis, respectively.
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Rovee, C.K., Harris, S.L. & Yopp, R. Olfactory thresholds and level of anxiety. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 2, 76–78 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327719
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327719