18th Annual Student Research Conference
Social Science
Comparison of Three Tracking Tests for BVP and SCL
Corey N. White*, Bryan W. Sappington, and John L. Whipple III
Dr. Fred Shaffer, Faculty Mentor
The present study compared the effectiveness of three popular methods (exhalation of a deep breath, raising and lowering the dominant arm, and abruptly clapping hands behind a participant’s head) in changing blood volume pulse and skin conductance level. Twenty-five undergraduates (13 men and 12 women), ranging from 19 to 26 years of age, participated in this experiment. SCL increased during breathing (15%), arm movement (11%), and clapping (14%). Bonferonni post-hoc comparisons revealed that breathing increased SCL more than arm movement (p = .026) and was equivalent to clapping. BVP also increased during breathing (80%), arm movement (603%), and clapping (84%). Bonferonni post-hoc comparisons revealed that arm movement increased BVP more than breathing (p = .000) or clapping (p = .000). We recommend that clinicians and researchers use breathing and arm movement to separately test SCL and BVP tracking or use arm movement to simultaneously test both SCL and BVP tracking.
Keywords: photoplethysmography, skin conductance, tracking tests
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 43-3
Location: VH 1232
Time: 2:45