Return of fear: perceived skill and heart-rate responsivity

The hypothesis that high heart rate and low perceived skill would be associated with greater return of fear than low heart rate and high perceived skill was investigated in a group of 63 anxious musical performers. Musicians were taught progressive muscle relaxation and attention-focusing skills over the course of four weekly sessions. Return of subjective fear was assessed between training programme sessions and at a three-month follow-up assessment. Performance quality ratings served as the behavioural measure, anticipatory heart rate as the physiological measure, and subjective units of distress scales as the subjective measure. Four classification groups (high heart rate, low perceived skill; high heart rate, high perceived skill; low heart rate, low perceived skill; and low heart rate, high perceived skill) were formed on the basis of median splits of heart rate and perceived skill pre-assessment levels. Each group demonstrated subjective fear reduction, while heart rate reduced in the high heart-rate subjects, and performance quality improved overall at post-assessment. Follow-up return of fear was apparent in high heart-rate subjects, regardless of their perceived skill status. High heart-rate subjects reported more anxious thoughts than did low heart-rate subjects. Perceived skill was not clearly associated with return of fear. Post-hoc comparisons indicated that subjects who demonstrated follow-up return of fear had higher heart rate, lower perceived skill, more anxious thoughts, less performance skill and fewer performances over the follow-up interval than subjects who did not demonstrate a return of fear. However, initial heart rate was the only significant predictor of follow-up fear levels.