| dc.description.abstract | This study was designed to measure changes in heart rate, respirations, and electrodermal activity
(EDA) due to anticipation of eating a range of peppers on the Scoville Heat Scale (starting at
30,000-50,000 scoville units and working up to 1,000,000 heat units). Our hypothesis stated that each
measured variable would increase in anticipation to eating spicy food--in this case peppers. For all 30
participants, baseline heart rate, respiration, and skin conductance measurements were taken for one
minute using electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and a respiratory belt,
respectively. A positive control was measured followed by a recovery period to return to baseline
measurements. During the experimental portion, participants were informed that there was a range of
peppers to try and they were to eat the spiciest one they felt they could tolerate. Time was allotted from
when one experimenter left the room to go fetch these ‘peppers’, to when they returned to inform
participants they would not actually need to consume any peppers (note: no physical peppers were used
by the experimenters). This allowed time for possible changes in physiological measurements to develop.
Following the experiment, participants completed a survey rating their current hunger level and spicy
food tolerance. Analysis of our results show significant differences between the average resting and
average experimental values for heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin conductance. Additionally, our
post-experimental survey also shows an interesting correlation between self-reported spice tolerance and
the physiological changes observed. | en_US |
