Mood changes after alpha feedback training.

Summary.-Immediately before alpha feedback training, 13 Ss responded to a mood checklist and the Breskin Rigidity Test (measuring preference for perceptual closure). After 2 sessions of alpha training, retests showed significant increases in (a) production of alpha EEG waves, (b) scores for those moods which prior research had shown to be associated with alpha, (c) preference for closure. There has been little quantitative research on mood changes associated with changes in alpha patterns on the EEG, and since there is increasing interest in feedback training to increase and decrease alpha, this gap needs to be filled. Important data were reported by B. Brown.' She examined, in a series of three studies, Ss' descriptions of their feelings at times when their EEGs showed marked preponderance of alpha or of beta or of theta waves. There was relatively little overlap among the three sets of mood descriptors. Results were similar when Ss were asked to make free statements of their subjective states or to sort out appropriate terms from a list of 105 descriptors. Her listings offer a clear point of departure for subsequent study. During research on another topic (whether alpha learning shows any relation to ESP learning), we administered two short tests to our Ss to find whether alpha training was associated with mood or perceptual change (Lewis & Schmeidler, in press). One was a checklist based on Brown's data; the other was the Breskin Rigidity Test (described below). Both were given just before the first alpha feedback session and also just after the second session. Method.-Ss were recruited for a four-session project, to find whether they could identify and control their conscious states and ESP. All were young adults. Data are available for 13 Ss. After a short screening interview in which the alpha feedback technique was explained, electrodes were attached to right occiput and left ear for EEG recording. S was taken to a dimly lit cubicle and sat in a semi-reclining position in a deck chair. He was asked if he would take some short tests before the alpha training; when he consented he was given the two tests described below. A session of alpha feedback training followed; about a week later S had a second similar session. Both sessions began with pretests for alpha production and inhibition, continued with two periods of about 15 min. each for "free exploration," and terminated with posttests similar to the pretests. During free exploration a dim blue light glowed on a screen in front of S whenever the EEG showed alpha at an appropriate amplitude. S was instructed to keep his eyes open and to find what made the light turn on and off. At the end of the second session, before S left the deck chair, the mood checklist and Breskin Rigidity Test were readministered. S war, asked to respond according to the way he felt while "in alpha," i.e., in those periods when the blue light was on. From Brown's account of Ss' responses, we compiled 8 terms descriptive of alpha states (followed by (a) in the list below) and 8 descriptive of beta states, each typed on an index card, and arranged them in the following order: impatient, pleasure (a), 'B. Byown. Recognition of associations between aspects of consciousness and EEG frequencles. (Unpublished report, 1968)