This paper reports on an investigation to examine the psychological significance of the heart rate response to intense auditory stimulation--the cardiac defense response (CDR) - by studying its relationship with cognitive tasks related to Lacey's intake/rejection hypothesis (simple reaction time and mental arithmetic) and motivational tasks related to Obrist's cardiosomatic hypothesis (avoidance reaction time and cold pressor). Eight subjects who consistently evoked the CDR pattern (pattern 1) and 8 subjects who consistently did not (pattern 2) underwent the 4 cognitive/motivational tasks balancing the order of task presentation. Results showed that CDR does not bear any relation to mental arithmetic or cold pressor. Significant relationships were found with both simple and avoidance reaction time tasks. During the foreperiod of both tasks, pattern 1 showed a greater initial acceleration followed by a greater final deceleration. In addition, in the avoidance reaction time task pattern 1 showed a greater acceleration after initial greater deceleration during the period prior to the expected shock. It is concluded that CDR is sequentially related to both cognitive processes of input intake (Lacey's hypothesis) and motivational processes of active coping (Obrist's hypothesis).