Effects of Time-Sharing and Body Positional Demands on Cutaneous Information Processing

Abstract

12 Ss were asked to interpret a series of coded electrocutaneous pulses while engaged in a visual discrimination task of varying complexity. All Ss performed both tasks in each of 4 body positions (standing, sitting, kneeling, and prone). Ss were asked to indicate on each trial which 1 of 4 electrode locations was stimulated and whether duration of stimulation was .6 or 1.6 sec. A constant intensity of 1.5 v at 60 cps was employed. Three levels of complexity (no visual stimuli, 4 × 4 metric figures, and 8 × 8 metric figures) were employed in the visual task. In the cutaneous task, analysis of information transmitted ( It), location errors, duration errors, and total errors indicate that timesharing demand significantly impaired performance, whereas variation in body position had negligible effect.