Mental task demands and cardiovascular response patterns

Though it is well known that solving mental tasks elicits tonic increases in cardiovascular activity, a good theory explaining the specificity of this effect is lacking. It is also unclear why different kinds of mental tasks elicit different response patterns. The aim of the experiment was to compare cardiovascular response patterns during three tasks matched for their duration (8 min) and probability of success (.5): a simple RT task and two numeral tasks. One of them (a RUN task) involved program running (performing basic arithmetical operations), the other (an EDIT task) required searching for a problem solution. Seven cardiovascular variables, measured by a Portapres monitor, were analyzed. The analysis showed, among other findings, that the tonic increase in blood pressure and heart rate was greater during the RUN task than during the RT task. On the other hand, the EDIT task and the RT task produced almost identical response patterns.