SHORT-TERM MEDIUM-TERM AND LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS AMONG METEOROLOGICAL AND ELECTRODERMAL VARIABLES

The present study investigated the relationship between weather and electrodermal data. The latter were gathered during three habituation studies with a common initial procedure: male undergraduates (N = 336) were presented with a 1‐sec, 500 Hz, 55 dB tone until habituated. Initial skin conductance level (SCL), mean square root skin conductance response to the first 3 tones (√SCR), and number of trials to SCR habituation (TH) were each correlated with the meteorological conditions (temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure) during each of several pre‐experimental periods lasting from 1 hr to 1 month. The multiple correlation (R) between SCL and the meteorological variables was low but statistically significant for each time period, as was the case for √SCR. For TH the Rs were significant only for time periods of 1 day or more. Cross‐validations indicated that the Rs were stable and that electrodermal values could be reliably predicted from meteorological data. These results, together with correlations of each meteorological variable with each electrodermal variable and examinations of each variable across academic semesters, indicated that meteorological variables bear significant and complex relationships to electrodermal activity which warrant consideration in the design of experiments with extended data collection periods. Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved