Effects of Extraversion and Mental Arithmetic on Heart-Rate Reactivity

• Published in: Perceptual and motor skills Vol. 72; no. 3_suppl; pp. 1239 - 1248
• Main Authors: Pearson, Gwen L., Freeman, Frederick G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-06-1991; Perceptual and Motor Skills; Perceptual and Motor Skills, etc
• Subjects: Adult; Arousal - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Extraversion (Psychology); Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heart Rate - physiology; Humans; Introversion (Psychology); Male; Mathematics; Miscellaneous; Problem Solving - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Task Performance and Analysis; Task difficulty; Human; Heart rate; Arithmetics; Extraversion introversion; Cognition; Personality
• ISSN: 0031-5125; 1558-688X
• DOI: 10.2466/pms.1991.72.3c.1239

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of extraversion and task difficulty on heart-rate reactivity. 15 extraverts and 15 introverts as identified by their scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory completed mental arithmetic problems of three levels of difficulty. Two-way analysis of variance indicated that heart-rate reactivity increased as task difficulty increased. Also, introverts showed larger heart-rate reactivity to the task than extraverts. The present findings partially support Eysenck's physiological theory of extraversion in that introverted subjects were more aroused by the mental arithmetic task; however, the factors which produce such a difference are unclear.