Win some, lose some: Parental hypertension and heart rate change in an incentive versus response cost paradigm

Fowles (1983), citing evidence from separate studies, suggests that both incentive and response cost paradigms increase heart rate and should be subsumed under Gray's (1975) 'appetitive motivational system'. Shock avoidance and loss of reward (response cost) contingencies, while aversive, appear to evoke this motivational system; consequently both should elicit heart rate increases independent of anxiety. The present investigation compared magnitude of heart rate changes observed under conditions of winning and losing money. Results showed: (1) no differences between incentive and response cost conditions; (2) no effect of state anxiety on heart rate in these conditions, despite an elevation of state anxiety on the task day relative to a subsequent relaxation day assessment; and (3) some evidence for the presence under both such appetitive conditions of cardiovascular hyperresponsivity among offspring of hypertensive parents. The results suggest a need for systematic parametric studies of experimental conditions.