Cross Modal Generalization in Conditioned Galvanic Skin Response Audiometry

Abstract

Four groups of ten university students with normal hearing were conditioned using GSR audiometry. Group 1 was conditioned to a 40 dB 250 Hz air-conducted auditory stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same stimulus. Group 2 was conditioned to the same air-conducted auditory stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of a 40 dB 250 Hz vibrotactual stimulus generated by a bone transducer. Group 3 was conditioned to the vibrotactual stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same auditory stimulus. Group 4 was conditioned to the vibrotactual stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same vibrotactual stimulus. Conditioning across sensory modes, as measured by the number of galvanic skin responses during the extinction trials, occurred at a level almost as high as conditioning and extinction in the same sensory mode.