The Correction of Psychophysiological Measures for Individual Differences in Responsivity Should Be Based on Typical Response Parameters: A Reply to Stemmler

Gershon Ben‐Shakhar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Stemmler (1987) has criticized conclusions drawn from a previous article (Ben‐Shakhar, 1985) which compared several transformations of raw SCRs lo correct for individual differences in responsivity. Stemmler claims that within subject standardization is biased because it utilizes within‐subjects standard deviations based on individual subjects' entire response distributions. 1 agree with Stemmler that it may be preferable to use modified z‐scores based solely on within stimulus‐set variability. However, 1 claim that the general conclusion drawn from my demonstrations‐namely, that any correcting formula should be based upon parameters that represent the subject's typical response level, rather than maximal response level‐is valid. This conclusion was based not just on the advantage of z‐scores over paintal scores, but also on an extensive analysis that compared other transformations which were based either on individual subjects' mean SCR or on maximal SCR, These transformations did not utilize the standard deviation parameter and are therefore free from all the problems mentioned by Stemmler.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)247-249
Number of pages3
JournalPsychophysiology
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1987
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Range correction
  • Skin conductance response
  • Standardization of autonomic responses

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