Boldness moderates the effects of external threat on performance within a task-switching paradigm.

Abstract

Set shifting involves the capacity to effectively and efficiently direct mental resources in the service of dynamically changing goal representations. This capacity is important in everyday life and may be vital in situations where processing resources needed for adaptive action may be diverted by cues for external danger or threat (e.g., first responding, military combat, trauma surgery). Although considerable research has investigated performance in set-shifting tasks, little work exists on how the presence of external threats may affect the capacity to flexibly deploy cognitive resources. Even less is known about individual difference factors that might moderate such effects. The current study addressed these gaps in the literature through use of a novel task-switching procedure in which participants (N = 77) performed two tasks in alternation under shock-threat and no-shock ("safe") conditions. Results indicated that behavioral performance was impacted by the presence of threat. However, these effects were moderated by individual differences in threat reactivity as indexed by both self-report and physiological measures. Our findings serve to clarify the impact of explicit threat on set-shifting performance. In addition, they encourage further use of the threat/task-switching paradigm as a laboratory model for studying individual differences in performance under conditions of pressure or peril. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).