Electrodermal Activity in Psychological Research summarizes the methodological problems involved in the application of electrodermal activity as a dependent variable to basic psychophysiological research. The approach of this nine-chapter book is generally from the molecular to the molar in sequence of chapters, from basic to applied research, and from the more elementary to the more complex independent variable manipulation. This book covers first the terminology, recording and measuring techniques, electronic circuits, and current theories of the physiological mechanisms of electrodermal responding. The following chapters deal with the theories of attention and arousal; the indices of electrodermal activity and their relationships to these theories; the problems of measurement and control; and the effects of various independent variable manipulation on simple and differential conditioning performance. The discussions then shift to instrumental conditioning of electrodermal activity and the use of electrodermal measures in research on personality and pathological states, such as with schizophrenics, retardates, depressives, psychotherapy, central nervous system damage, anxiety, and introversion-extroversion. This text further considers the presumed mechanisms underlying systematic desensitization and the relationship of these mechanisms to electrodermal activity. A chapter explores the several widely divergent areas of social psychological research where electrodermal activity has been applied as a dependent variable, including in attitude, empathy, small groups, and social interactions. The concluding chapter evaluates the scientific basis for the application of electrodermal measures to deception detection field.

Electrodermal activity is one of the most frequently used psychophysiological evaluations in psychology research. Based on the 1992 edition of this work Electrodermal Activity covers advances in the field since the first publication in 1992. The current volume includes updated information on brain imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI, which provide further insight into the brain mechanisms underlying EDA. In addition, this volume is able to describe more reliably hypotheses that have been successfully tested since the first publication.

This book explores Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) dynamics as investigated through Electrodermal Activity (EDA) processing. It presents groundbreaking research in the technical field of biomedical engineering, especially biomedical signal processing, as well as clinical fields of psychometrics, affective computing, and psychological assessment. This volume describes some of the most complete, effective, and personalized methodologies for extracting data from a non-stationary, nonlinear EDA signal in order to characterize the affective and emotional state of a human subject. These methodologies are underscored by discussion of real-world applications in mood assessment. The text also examines the physiological bases of emotion recognition through noninvasive monitoring of the autonomic nervous system. This is an ideal book for biomedical engineers, physiologists, neuroscientists, engineers, applied mathmeticians, psychiatric and psychological clinicians, and graduate students in these fields. This book also: Expertly introduces a novel approach for EDA analysis based on convex optimization and sparsity, a topic of rapidly increasing interest Authoritatively presents groundbreaking research achieved using EDA as an exemplary biomarker of ANS dynamics Deftly explores EDA's potential as a source of reliable and effective markers for the assessment of emotional responses in healthy subjects, as well as for the recognition of pathological mood states in bipolar patients

Electrodennal activity refers to electrical changes across the skin in areas of the body that are psychologically responsive. The eccrine sweat glands are the primary detenninant of electrodennal activity, and these are psychologically active especially on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. As a matter of convenience, electrodennal activity is most often recorded from the palms. Over the years, the electrodennal response has been known as the psychogalvanic reflex, the galvanic skin response, the skin resistance response, the skin conductance response, and the skin potential response. The tenns psychogalvanic reflex and galvanic skin response have fallen into disuse among scientists, but are still to be found in psychology text books. of its early discovery, ease of measurement, and often easily observable Because response to experimental manipulations, the recording of electrodennal activity is one of the most frequently used methods in psychophysiology. Indeed, in the early years following the founding of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, electrodennal research so dominated the field that people worried that the society was simply an electrodennal society. Although other psychophysiological techniques have emerged as equally strong contributors to psychophysiology, electrodennal research continues to be important throughout the world. As a result of this massive research investment, there has been great progress in understanding electrodennal phenomena, as well as major advances in recording methods since the phenomenon was discovered.

This handbook provides a critical review and user’s guide to conducting and reporting process tracing studies of decision making. Each chapter covers a specific method that is presented and reviewed by authors who are experts in the method’s application to decision research. The book ultimately illustrates and presents a multi-method approach and is essential reading for graduate students and researchers wishing to undertake such studies on decision making.

The first review of the subject at a level both informative for the specialist and accessible for the nonspecialist.