Development of the vaginal photoplethysmograph.

This brief report describes the circumstances under which the photoplethysmograph vaginal probe was developed. The role that many individuals played in its development is emphasized.

Implicit and explicit memory of neutral, negative emotional, and sexual information.

Implicit and explicit memory for sexual, negative emotional, and neutral words using Jacoby's process dissociation framework was investigated. This framework provides estimates of conscious (explicit) and automatic (implicit) influences on memory. We found that explicit memory was greater for the sexual words when compared to negative emotional and neutral words and suggest that these results are due to increased saliency of sexual stimuli. Dividing attention did not decrease explicit memory for sexual words, although it did significantly decrease explicit memory for the negative emotional and neutral words. Finally, females used more previously presented emotional words to complete word stems. The genders did not differ in their recall of previously presented sexual and neutral words. A discussion of possible explanations for the various findings is presented.

Sexual content-induced delay with double-entendre words.

Seventy-three men and 72 women made lexical decisions to target words that followed sentences constructed so that the last word was a sexual double-entendre. Prime target relatedness, erotic versus nonerotic target, stimulus onset asynchrony, and participant's gender were varied in a between-subjects design. A second analysis that substituted sentence context for prime target relationship also was conducted. Data were collected on the emotionality and social acceptability of priming sentences and target words. Results revealed that, as with previous research on neutral words, prime target relatedness facilitated lexical decisions. Additionally, there was evidence of slowing in making lexical decisions when erotic material was presented or was part of a contextual bias. This delay was accentuated in women. A model that proposes that sexual words evoke a more complex processing sequence is presented. The model suggests that appraisal and checking or editing mechanisms, which are accentuated in women, help explain the phenomenon.

Sexual content induced delays in unprimed lexical decisions: gender and context effects.

Two experiments are reported in which subjects made unprimed lexical decisions where the targets included sexual, romantic, and neutral words. Predicted gender differences in lexical decision times are found. Women delayed their lexical decisions when the target was sexual and the delay was present, but reduced, when the target word was romantic. For men these delays, while in the same direction, were smaller and failed to attain statistical significance. Data were collected on the several characteristics of the target words. We found that word familiarity influenced decision time but could not account for the word content induced delay. Similarly, neither word emotionality nor word acceptability accounted for the delay. Finding a strong effect of sexual word content for women in unprimed lexical decisions makes it clear that the effect is present at very basic levels of information processing. This suggests that it is a pervasive characteristic of the responding to sexual stimuli that occurs throughout much of cognitive activity.

Gender differences in the organization of sexual information.

One widely used model of knowledge representation is that of a network in which concepts are portrayed as nodes with links between the nodes representing associations. Schvaneveldt (1990) developed a method (Pathfinder) that generates associative networks from individual's ratings of similarity of word pairs. We had 51 female and 47 male undergraduates rate for similarity all paired combinations of 16 words judged as relevant to the domain of sexuality. Using a measure of network similarity, we found that each gender's networks were more similar to each other than they were to the other gender's. Using the number of links on words as the dependent variable there were gender differences in the number of links within clusters of words, between clusters of words, and on specific words. These differences, for the most part, are consistent with gender stereotypes and prior research showing gender differences in the processing of sexual information.

Determinants of subjective experience of sexual arousal in women: feedback from genital arousal and erotic stimulus content.

Sixty-two women participated in a study designed to explore the association between genital and subjective sexual arousal. Four stimulus conditions were created, designed to evoke differential patterns of genital arousal over time. Subjects were instructed to report sensations in their genitalia while being exposed to the same erotic stimulus on repeated trials or to a series of varying erotic stimuli. Detection of genital arousal was facilitated by the occurrence of changes in genital arousal over trials. That is, genital and subjective sexual arousal were linearly related in conditions that resulted in large differences in genital arousal over trials, whereas such a relation was absent in conditions in which genital arousal levels remained relatively constant. In women, peripheral feedback from consciously detected genital arousal seems to be a relatively unimportant determinant of subjective sexual arousal.

Ambiguous stimuli: sex is in the eye of the beholder.

It is usually assumed that sexual material is easily identifiable by its content. The present study investigated whether subjects could be led to interpret ambiguous material as sexual or not via simple instructions. Thematically ambiguous written text was presented to 269 subjects. The principal independent variable was the content of advance information. Advance information was designed to suggest that the accompanying text had either a sexual or a nonsexual theme. After reading the story and completing an intervening task, subjects completed recall and recognition tasks based on the text. These data were used to determine the theme or story interpretation given by subjects. The information contained in the advance organizers influenced subjects' memories for and interpretations of the ambiguous story. When the story was preceded by introductory information that suggested sexual content, subjects tended to attribute sexual meaning to the story. Other subjects attributed a nonsexual meaning to the same text when it was preceded by nonsexual information. Findings suggest that under certain conditions, sex is in the "eye of the beholder."

Gender differences in memory for a sexual story.

The present research extended previous work that identified gender differences in memory for a sexual text. That work identified a memory bias for the sexes in recognition memory, whereas we found gender differences in errors in recall memory. Recall memory is particularly important because it provides the opportunity for the individual to construct memory. This provides the opportunity for distortion to occur and allows the individual to make errors. The prediction that men would incorrectly recall more material of an erotic nature was supported. The prediction that women would incorrectly recall material that was romantic in nature was not confirmed. In a recognition task both genders endorsed more false positives of a sexual nature than a romantic nature. Using findings from research on memory for written text, predictions concerning the effects of importance, perspective, and typicality were made. Those predictions were not confirmed. A discussion of possible explanations for the various findings is presented.

Skin conductance and heart rate in women with premenstrual syndrome.

This study investigated the effects of the menstrual cycle phase on certain components of autonomic arousal and task performance. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) women and matched controls (non-PMS) were tested both premenstrually and postmenstrually. The conditions selected were a) the presentation of 10 tones, b) a proofreading performance task, and c) a word-association learning task. Skin conductance and heart rate were continuously monitored. No significant effects were found on baseline physiological measures, or on proofreading or word-association performance. A significant point in cycle effect for skin conductance and HR orienting response to the tones was found showing smaller HR and skin conductance responses postmenstrually. Several significant PMS classifications by point in menstrual cycle interactions were found. These indicated that, paradoxically, the non-PMS subjects showed higher spontaneous skin conductance responding during the word association task and higher skin conductance responses to tones prior to menses. While in contrast, PMS subjects yielded higher responding on the same measures postmenstrually. On stress ratings, PMS subjects reported experiencing more stress postmenstrually. Results are discussed in terms of the possible role of expectancy factors and inaccurate self-monitoring.

The habituation of sexual arousal.

The effects of two levels of stimulus intensity (medium and high) and two levels of stimulus variability (varied stimuli and constant stimuli) on the habituation of subjective and physiological sexual arousal were investigated in a 2 X 2 factorial design. Forty male volunteers served as subjects. It was hypothesized that, as compared to constant stimuli, varied stimuli would produce higher rates of response attenuation on indices of sexual arousal. This hypothesis was confirmed for both penile response and a subjective measure of sexual arousal. Second, it was hypothesized that stimuli of medium intensity would produce higher rates of response of attenuation on subjective and physiological indices of sexual arousal than would stimuli of high intensity. This hypothesis was partially confirmed for subjective arousal but was not confirmed for the physiological measure of sexual arousal. These results were interpreted as supporting the notions that sexual arousal to erotic stimuli decreases with repeated stimulus presentations and, since the experimental design properly controlled for physiological fatigue, that a habituation process is involved in this observed decrement. The implications of habituation for sex research are discussed.

Voluntary vaginal musculature contractions as an enhancer of sexual arousal.

In a study of the effects of vaginal musculature contractions (Kegel's exercises) on both subjective and physiological measures of sexual arousal, 30 normal females were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group was informed about these exercises and was asked to practice them both during lab sessions and during the week intervening between sessions. The second group was informed concerning the effects of Kegel's exercises but did not practice contractions. A control group received no information regarding these exercises. Measures of vaginal vasocongestion and subjective ratings of sexual arousal were obtained during two 31-minute lab sessions. Vaginal contractions enhanced both subjective ratings and physiological measures of arousal. When combined with self-generated fantasy, tensing further augmented arousal. These effects were not further enhanced after 1 week of practice. The present study provides empirical support for the prescription of Kegel's exercises to normal women as an enhancer of sexual arousal. Further study of the effects of Kegel's exercises on a sample of dysfunctional women is necessary to determine the applicability of these results to a clinical population.

A study of fantasy-based sexual arousal in women.

The self-reported use of sexual fantasy as an aspect of sexual behavior in natural settings was examined with respect to genital responding to both sexual fantasy and an erotic audiotape within the laboratory. It was predicted that subjects who self-reported a higher frequency of using sexual fantasy during either masturbation or sexual interaction with a partner in extralaboratory settings would be more highly responsive on genital measures of sexual arousal obtained when the subject was generating sexual fantasy within the laboratory. Forty-five female subjects (median age, 21) completed a battery of questionnaires, which included three scales of general imagery ability and frequency, and a detailed sexual history. All subjects then experienced an initial nonstimulated baseline period followed by a second baseline period and an exposure to an erotic audiotape. Genital responding was measured by vaginal photoplethysmography. Those subjects who reported more frequent use of fantasy during masturbation outside the laboratory showed greater genital responses during both fantasy and tape-elicited arousal than those reporting less use of masturbatory fantasy. One of the imagery questionnaires yielded a significant correlation with genital response in the fantasy condition. It appears that cognitive factors have predictive significance for measures of vaginal pressure pulse responses to erotic tape recordings and fantasies.

Genital measures: comments on their role in understanding human sexuality.

This paper discusses the use of genital measures in the study of both applied and basic work in human sexuality. Some of the advantages of psychophysiological measures are considered along with cautions concerning unwarranted assumptions. Some of the advances that are possible in both applied and basic work are examined. It is suggested that greater attention be payed to genital measures, but it should not be assumed that they are the only or even the best measures available for study.