Arousal and Cognition: Picture Vocabulary Performance and Individual Differences in Physiological Arousal

Abstract

The contribution of individual differences in physiological arousal to intellective assessment in learning disabled children was studied. Arousal was measured by salivary response and intellective function (receptive vocabulary) by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. It was predicted that best performance would be found at intermediate levels of arousal. Peabody scores of learning disabled subjects of high, middle, and low arousal showed a non-significant trend in the predicted direction. Reasons for the lack of significance of this hypothesized trend were proposed and needed research outlined.