The action of subject effects, therapist effects and training sessions in biofeedback thermal training

This thesis explored the effects of subject knowledge, therapist knowledge and repeated training trials upon the subjects' ability to raise their finger temperature within a biofeedback paradigm. Significant findings indicate that only in the double blind condition did "learning of the response" occur over the four training sessions. In the other three conditions the groups showed a consistent (though non-significant) increase in their finger temperature over pre-training measures with one exception in training session three. In this trial the single blind group produced a decrease in finger temperature resulting in a significant difference between the four conditions due to the subjects' awareness of the true physiological parameter being conditioned.