The effect of heightened levels of physiological arousal on neuropsychological measures of attention in a nonclinical sample

Abstract

Anonclinical sample of 41 participants were subjected to heightened levels of physiological arousal and measured on a number of neuropsychological measures of attention. The participants completed the measures under both 75dB and 95dB white noise. Examination of the performance on the Corsi Block Tapping Task, the Trail Making Test Part B, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test showed significant decrements in performance on these tasks as a result of the high levels of physiological arousal. Tests that failed to show performance deficits included the Trail Making Test Part A, the Symbol Search, and measures of reaction time. These results indicate that the effect of heightened arousal on test performance is on the more complex indices of attention. It is suggested that heightened levels of arousal can influence performance in the clinical assessment situation, and collateral measurement of anxiety state may be helpful in determining the effect of this factor in conducting assessment in both clinical and nonclinical samples.