Effect Of Verbal Association On Averaged Auditory Evoked Response

Abstract

The influence of affective association on the auditory a verged evoked response (AER) was investigated. By using vaerbal conditioning, affective loadings of pleasant, upleasant and neutral were grafted onto pure tones. Auditory AER were obtained for frequencies of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 kHz. The N₁P₂ amplitude chnge (re the 0.5-kHz response) was found to be significant when the pleasant and unpleasant qualities were grafted to the low or mid frequencies. The results suggest that only pure tones that produce the largest disturbance in the cochlea will reflect significant electroencephalic effects. In the significant conditions the pleasant quality was found to evoke a greater amplitude change than the unpleasant quality. It was concluded that previous conditioning can result in stimuli attention by verbal association.

Key Words:

• Electric response audiometry
• N₁P₂ amplitude
• Contingent negative variation