Probing the orienting response with startle modification and secondary reaction time

Current models of orienting suggest a relationship between the orienting response and attentional processing. This relationship was examined using two independent probe techniques to index attentional processing: secondary reaction time and startle eyeblink modification. Twenty-eight college-age subjects received intermixed presentations of to-be-attended and to-be-ignored tones. Skin conductance orienting responses were obtained during a subset of the tones. Each of the remaining tones contained either a secondary reaction time probe at lead intervals of 150 or 2,000 ms or a startle eyeblink probe presented at lead intervals of 120 or 2,000 ms. In addition, reaction time and startle probes also were presented during selected intertone intervals, and responses to these stimuli served as the baselines from which to compare changes in reaction time and blink amplitude produced by the attended and ignored tones. The results revealed that, compared with the ignored tones, the attended tones were associated with larger skin conductance orienting responses, greater blink inhibition at the 120-ms lead interval, greater blink facilitation at the 2,000-ms lead interval, and greater reaction time slowing at the 2,000-ms lead interval. Consistent with previous findings, the ignored tone was associated with greater reaction time slowing than was the attended tone at the 150-ms lead interval. The results support a relationship between elicitation of the skin conductance orienting response and attentional processes and suggest that the secondary reaction time and blink modification techniques may provide unique information regarding this relationship.