Instructed heart rate control. Effects of varying feedback frequency and timing

Forty subjects participated in an experiment designed to test the effects of different feedback displays on instructed heart rate speeding and slowing. One group of subjects received information about interpulse interval length every beat. This display included specific information about when systole occurred, in addition to information about performance relative to a criterion. Two other groups received similar information about performance, but their displays were not triggered by systole; rather, information about average interpulse interval was presented either every second or every 6 seconds. A fourth group of subjects participated in a perceptual motor task in which no instructions were given to control heart rate. Results indicated that the instructed subjects generated significantly greater heart rate speeding than slowing. Groups receiving feedback produced greater changes when compared to the control group only during the speeding sessions. No differences among feedback groups were present in the slowing task. During speeding, the 1-second group's performance deteriorated dramatically in the second session. The results suggested that, in the context of a feedback task, it is information about the occurrence of systole that facilitates heart rate speeding. Real-time displays are less facilitating of heart rate change and may disrupt speeding performance when information is presented at certain "critical" frequencies. Slowing performance was again shown to be unrelated to information frequency or reinforcement rate.