Abstract:

I should like to talk about another long established piece of psychological ironmongery that seems to offer a possibility of measuring, in the field of commercial research, meaningful responses to sensory stimuli. This is the psychogalvano-meter, an electronic device which was been around in academic and clinical circles for many years (for example, see "Experimental Psychology" by Woodworth and ScMosberg). Technically, a psychogalvanometer records changes in 'arousal' , which it does accurately and with great sensitivity by recording changes in the electrical resistance of the skin induced by the minute degree of sweating that occurs at moment of arousal. In our context, its function is to measure emotional response.