Psychophysiology of the reaction time experiment: a factor analytic approach

A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was applied to behavioral and physiological data from a group of 25 subjects comprising normals and depressives, in whom event-related slow brain potentials were recorded during performance of a fixed foreperiod, reaction time task. Five of the seven factors thus evinced were labelled 'activation', 'inhibition', 'resilience', 'depressivity-neuroticism' and 'extraversion', the remaining two factors being related to arousal in an unspecified manner. Although no clear-cut partitioning of variance into trait, state and task-related components was achieved, the contention is advanced that measurement of these factors and their patterning might contribute to psychophysiological diagnosis, provided they are substantiated by further research.