RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AROUSAL AND ACTIVATION, AND SENSATION SEEKING

In previous experiments we tested the paradigm (De Brabander, Perceptu al and Motor Skills, 69, 75-82, 1988) that phasic arousal reactions ar e reflected by retarded reactions after an unexpected preparatory sign al in a visuospatial (right hemisphere) discrimination reaction time t ask. Phasic activation responses are shown by accelerated reactions af ter the preparatory signals in a semantic (left hemisphere) task. In t he present experiment the results do again validate the paradigm. The main purpose of the study was to use this paradigm in order to investi gate whether sensation seeking is related to more intense phasic arous al reactions (arousability) or to more pronounced phasic activation re sponses (activatability) or to both. At first sight the results indica te that only arousability is related to sensation seeking, especially boredom susceptibility. Other possible explanations of the results are also discussed.