Abstract
Effects of stressors on cognitive task performance have primarily been studied in isolation, and little is known about the combined effects of two or more stressors. This study examined how a metabolic stressor (skipping breakfast) and a sensory stressor (noise) affect cognitive task performance in isolation and combined. In addition to performance, we collected physiological and subjective data to get insight in the underlying mechanisms. Twenty participants came to the lab twice, once after skipping breakfast, and once after a standardized breakfast. They performed runs of the 2-back task and the International Shopping List Task, which were alternately presented with and without noise. During the 2-back task, electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded. Subjective ratings on effort and stress were also collected. No interaction effects between the two stressors on cognitive performance were found. Skipping breakfast did not cause hypoglycemia, but resulted in subjective discomfort and a lower state of arousal (as indicated by lower heart rate and EDA). These may underly the trend for more missed responses on the 2-back task after breakfast skipping. Noise appeared to generate arousal and increased attention (reflected in higher EDA and P300) in accordance with higher experienced load and stress. This is consistent with less missed 2-back responses in noise conditions. The results indicate that individuals spent extra effort to maintain task performance in the presence of noise. We propose to use a model that, besides additional effort, takes the effect of stressors on performance into account.
Highlights
In many professions, individuals have to perform cognitive tasks under various physical or mental stressors, or a combination of these
We found no interaction effects of breakfast and noise on any of the 2-back performance variables
A significant effect of breakfast was found on the inter-beat interval (IBI) of the ECG signal, F(1,19) = 7.01, p = 0.016, with a higher mean IBI after skipping breakfast (M = 0.86; SE = 0.02) compared to standardized breakfast (M = 0.79; SE = 0.03)
Summary
Individuals have to perform cognitive tasks under various physical or mental stressors, or a combination of these. One can think of military personnel, workers in the industrial production sector, or police officers working on challenging tasks while being exposed to different stressors, like noise, psychological stress, thermal heat, or food deprivation during their work. The effect of these stressors on cognitive performance is often negative, but sometimes positive (Paulus et al 2009). The cognitive tasks involved simple attention tasks and a working memory task They did not compare the effects of the individual stressors to the multi-stressor environment, so that no interaction effects could be investigated. They examined either cold or heat load in combination with
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
