Experiment Procedure
This experiment was conducted between 12PM and 5PM to reduce the effects of circadian rhythm on the participants, so the participants would be fully awake and cognitively aware at the time of the experiment. The subjects were instructed to arrive at the lab 1 hour prior to the beginning of the TSST. Upon arrival, they were taken to a waiting room where the head experimenter informed them about the process of the study. After verbal and written consent was received from all patients, they were outfitted with the LifeShirt, an “electrophysiological measurement device” (see below). Once a 30-minute period had passed, an initial saliva sampling was taken from the volunteers. Then, each volunteer was taken into the TSST room, …show more content…
These scales were used repetitively through the study to determine each subject’s self-perceived level of stress. The Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS), which is used to test comprehensive self-perceived stress levels of subjects, was used to regulate the effect of a participant’s chronic, long-term stress on the outcome of the experiment [11].
Another test, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), was used alongside the other tests in order to compare baseline anxiety in the sample group. Higher scores on this test reveal higher anxiety levels in a subject. This test was composed of two surveys, numbering twenty questions each, and the STAI-state was used continuously through the experiment to discern any fluctuation in anxiety levels of the subjects during the course of the experiment [11].
Each volunteer who was instructed to listen to either relaxing music or the sound of rippling water was also asked to rate their enjoyment of the stimulus and how relaxing they found the stimulus to be on a scale of 1 to 5. A higher value indicated increased subjective enjoyment of the stimulus and lower values showed that the subject either disliked or found the stimulus to be ineffective
This experiment was conducted between 12PM and 5PM to reduce the effects of circadian rhythm on the participants, so the participants would be fully awake and cognitively aware at the time of the experiment. The subjects were instructed to arrive at the lab 1 hour prior to the beginning of the TSST. Upon arrival, they were taken to a waiting room where the head experimenter informed them about the process of the study. After verbal and written consent was received from all patients, they were outfitted with the LifeShirt, an “electrophysiological measurement device” (see below). Once a 30-minute period had passed, an initial saliva sampling was taken from the volunteers. Then, each volunteer was taken into the TSST room, …show more content…
These scales were used repetitively through the study to determine each subject’s self-perceived level of stress. The Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS), which is used to test comprehensive self-perceived stress levels of subjects, was used to regulate the effect of a participant’s chronic, long-term stress on the outcome of the experiment [11].
Another test, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), was used alongside the other tests in order to compare baseline anxiety in the sample group. Higher scores on this test reveal higher anxiety levels in a subject. This test was composed of two surveys, numbering twenty questions each, and the STAI-state was used continuously through the experiment to discern any fluctuation in anxiety levels of the subjects during the course of the experiment [11].
Each volunteer who was instructed to listen to either relaxing music or the sound of rippling water was also asked to rate their enjoyment of the stimulus and how relaxing they found the stimulus to be on a scale of 1 to 5. A higher value indicated increased subjective enjoyment of the stimulus and lower values showed that the subject either disliked or found the stimulus to be ineffective