Effects of preparatory information about sensations, threat of pain, and attention on cold pressor distress

Abstract

Pain experience is conceptualized as a combination of stimulus sensations (e.g., aching) and emotional distress. In Experiment 1, less distress was reported to cold pressor stimulation by subjects first told about stimulus sensations than by subjects who were uninformed or were told about symptoms of bodily arousal (e.g., tension). Adding a pain warning to sensation information blocked distress reduction, presumably by eliciting an emotional interpretation of the stimulus. In Experiment 2, subjects attending only to hand sensations reported less distress than subjects attending to their bodies. This decrease in the power of the stimulus to provoke emotion is presumably mediated by a schema of hand sensations formed by attention. In Experiment 3, subjects attending to hand sensations early in the immersion and distracting themselves later reported the same low levels of distress as did subjects who attended to hand sensations throughout. Subjects distracted throughout and subjects attending to hand sensations later showed no distress reduction. Therefore, stimulus schematization must precede distress reduction. Implications for distress control are discussed.