Noise and Attention Span

O’Malley, John J.; Gallas, John

doi:10.2466/pms.1977.44.3.919

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Collapsing across men and women may tend to give results consistent with the early research (Martin & Franzen, 1989) and the data from the women in the present study (McNally, et al, 1990). Finally, unusual or qualitatively different methods of inducing stress or anxiety may produce generally inconsistent results (O'Malley & Gallas, 1977) or results that are difficult to reconcile.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

“…It is possible that people subjected to mild "normal" stressors react differently from subjects threatened with shock, loud noise, fear, or subjects high in trait anxiety (see Idzlkowski ei Baddeley, 1987;Martin & Franzen, 1989;O'Malley & Gallas, 1977). It is suggested that variables such as these (gender differences and the "naturalness" of the manipulation) should be considered when analyzing studies and theorizing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Trading Accuracy for Speed: Gender Differences on a Stroop Task under Mild Performance Anxiety

Kluge

1992

Percept Mot Skills

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A standard Stroop task was used to examine the effect of performance anxiety on 58 male and 69 female undergraduates. Subjects were approached either by two casually dressed experimenters who did not stress speed or accuracy or by 4 or 5 formally dressed experimenters who stressed quick and accurate performance. Subjects were told the test would assess their "mental acuity"; their responses were visibly tape-recorded. Reaction times did not show differential response by anxiety condition; men and women showed different RTs only in the low-anxiety condition, with women performing significantly more slowly. There were no significant differences for the high-anxiety condition. Analysis of errors showed women were more accurate than men. Men traded accuracy for speed and may have been under equal performance stress in both situations. When performance was not stressed, women were slower and more accurate than men. When performance was stressed, women increased their speed to match that of men while maintaining their greater accuracy.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Trading Accuracy for Speed: Gender Differences on a Stroop Task under Mild Performance Anxiety

Kluge

1992

Percept Mot Skills

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“…This possibility is supported by a number of studies using stressors other than shock such as ego threat, time pressure, or loud noises, which have been shown to reduce stress interference on conflict and Stroop tasks (O'Malley and Poplawsky, 1971; O'Malley and Gallas, 1977; Chajut and Algom, 2003; Booth and Sharma, 2009). This may be due to a general increased in non-specific arousal.…”

Section: Attention/controlmentioning

confidence: 95%

The impact of anxiety upon cognition: perspectives from human threat of shock studies

Robinson¹,

Vytal²,

Cornwell³

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

465

429

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Anxiety disorders constitute a sizeable worldwide health burden with profound social and economic consequences. The symptoms are wide-ranging; from hyperarousal to difficulties with concentrating. This latter effect falls under the broad category of altered cognitive performance which is the focus of this review. Specifically, we examine the interaction between anxiety and cognition focusing on the translational threat of unpredictable shock paradigm; a method previously used to characterize emotional responses and defensive mechanisms that is now emerging as valuable tool for examining the interaction between anxiety and cognition. In particular, we compare the impact of threat of shock on cognition in humans to that of pathological anxiety disorders. We highlight that both threat of shock and anxiety disorders promote mechanisms associated with harm avoidance across multiple levels of cognition (from perception to attention to learning and executive function)—a “hot” cognitive function which can be both adaptive and maladaptive depending upon the circumstances. This mechanism comes at a cost to other functions such as working memory, but leaves some functions, such as planning, unperturbed. We also highlight a number of cognitive effects that differ across anxiety disorders and threat of shock. These discrepant effects are largely seen in “cold” cognitive functions involving control mechanisms and may reveal boundaries between adaptive (e.g., response to threat) and maladaptive (e.g., pathological) anxiety. We conclude by raising a number of unresolved questions regarding the role of anxiety in cognition that may provide fruitful avenues for future research.

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“…Other studies reported an increase of the Stroop effect under stress (Brand, Schneider, & Arntz, 1995;Hartley & Shirley, 1976;Hochman, 1967Hochman, , 1969Pallack, Pittman, Heller, & Munson, 1975;Woodfield, Jones, & Martin, 1995). In yet a third class of studies, no effect or equivocal effects of stress on the Stroop effect were found (Hartley & Adams, 1974;Keinan et al, 1999;O'Malley & Gallas, 1977;, 1985. In the face of such inconsistency, Loeb (1986) was forced to conclude that (noise-induced) stress "may .…”

Section: Experimental Resolution Of Conflicting Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective attention improves under stress: Implications for theories of social cognition.

Chajut¹,

Algom²

2003

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

313

233

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Three influential perspectives of social cognition entail conflicting predictions regarding the selectivity of performance under stress. According to the attention view, selectivity to the task-relevant attribute improves under stress because of reduced utilization of task-irrelevant attributes. According to the capacity-resource approach, stress depletes attentional resources wherefore selectivity fails for all but chronically accessible information. A third perspective, ironic process theory, similarly holds that selective attention fails under stress but adds that task-irrelevant information is rendered hyperaccessible. The theoretical derivations were tested in a series of experiments using 2 classes of selectivity measures, with special care taken to control for hitherto neglected factors of context The results showed that the selectivity of attention improved under stress, consistent with the prediction of the attention view.

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Noise and Attention Span

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

Trading Accuracy for Speed: Gender Differences on a Stroop Task under Mild Performance Anxiety

Trading Accuracy for Speed: Gender Differences on a Stroop Task under Mild Performance Anxiety

The impact of anxiety upon cognition: perspectives from human threat of shock studies

Selective attention improves under stress: Implications for theories of social cognition.

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