Suggestion as an aid to self-regulation of hand temperature.

Five subjects were instructed to alter the temperature of the dominant hand (two increase, three decrease) with the aid of an augmented feedback display. On baseline days and on alternate training days, subjects were presented with slide projections and heard a tape-recorded sentence during every other intertrial interval during a 15-minute discrete trial period. On baseline days, the imagery and suggestions were neutral in nature; on training days they suggested thermal conditions appropriate to the subject's task. Subjects displayed a significantly larger temperature change in the instructed direction on suggestion than on nonsuggestion training days.