Measurement of psychophysiological changes within presenting situations and demonstration of the speaker’s app

Background The individual experience of strain and nervousness is part of any public performance under social attention, no matter if it is a musical or a verbal presentation. Physiological arousal in this specific situation is reflected by physical reactions as the acceleration of heart rate during the presentation and reduction of the heart rate variability. These are known indicators of a stress reaction. If nervousness increases it can interfere with actions and performance.

Method In a pilot study at the HNO Congress 2019 in Berlin and at the „Stimmforum 2019“ in Freiburg the psychophysiological parameters of nine people were measured. Measurements were taken over the course of each participant’s verbal presentation as well as both before and after the performance. In addition questionnaires on the subjective experience and general speaking anxiety were used.

Results The results of the psychophysiological measurements confirm results from the literature: The acceleration of the heart rate shortly before the presentation, and the rapid rise of finger temperature directly after. The questionnaires also show an elevated nervousness before the performance, that declines significantly afterwards.

Discussion There are many similarities between verbal presentations and musical performances to be found. Therefore – starting from our app for musicians (see Spahn at this conference) – we developed a speaker’s app which offers useful support in reference to dealing with anxiety towards public performing situations. An insight to the app’s possibilities will be given on sight, as well as the option to test it.

Poster-PDF A-1861.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020