Successful voluntary recruitment of cognitive control under acute stress

Plessow, Franziska; Schade, Susann; Kirschbaum, Clemens; Fischer, Rico

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.06.016

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Our findings showed that both medium and extreme rewards increased performance. Although unexpected, this finding mirrors previous studies on acute stress, which show that people can often maintain good cognitive performance under high-stress conditions (Plessow et al, 2017). Our studies suggest that, when extreme rewards are at stake, 'choking under pressure' may not be the default outcome-neither on switch trials nor on repeat trials.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Mapping the dose–response relationship between monetary reward and cognitive performance

Bijleveld¹,

Breukelen²,

Vicente³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The relationship between reward value and cognitive performance is often thought to be curvilinear, shaped like an inverted U. Moderately valuable rewards should facilitate, but extremely valuable rewards should harm, performance. Despite the popularity of this idea, the dose–response relationship between reward value and cognitive performance is not yet well-understood. Here we present a set of experiments (total N = 254) that examine the effects of monetary reward (no reward, medium reward, extreme reward) on task-switching performance. Overall, more valuable rewards led to better performance. Yet, when physical reward cues were present (i.e., when the money at stake was placed on the table), we observed the predicted inverted-U-shaped relationship. Together, our results suggest that (a) people are often able to maintain good cognitive performance when the stakes are high, and that (b) physical reward cues may play a key role in triggering ‘choking under pressure’.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Mapping the dose–response relationship between monetary reward and cognitive performance

Bijleveld¹,

Breukelen²,

Vicente³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The stress response elicited by stress is characterized by high arousal and negative affective valence which is geared toward causing the individuals to adapt to the changes in the environment ( Nesse et al, 2016 ). While a high stress level and the consequential high stress response leads to adverse cognitive consequences (for reviews see Sandi, 2013 ; Shields et al, 2016 ), literature also finds that moderate stress responses can improve various cognitive outcomes (e.g., Henderson et al, 2012 ; Plessow et al, 2017 ; Lempert et al, 2018 ). While the high stress response elicits a fight, flight or freeze response, the moderate stress response recruits cognitive resources allowing more deliberate action.…”

Section: Stress – Its Affective and Cognitive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hedonic Consumption in Times of Stress: Reaping the Emotional Benefits Without the Self-Regulatory Cost

Balleyer

Fennis

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Hedonic consumption is pleasant but can interfere with the capacity to self-regulate. In stressful moments, when self-regulation is arguably still important, individuals often indulge in hedonic consumption. In two experiments, we investigate whether hedonic consumption negatively affects self-regulation under moderately stressful conditions and whether selecting hedonic consumption under moderately stressful conditions is driven by high or low self-control. In both studies, participants were randomly exposed to a mental arithmetic task that was either completed under time pressure with performance feedback (moderate stress) or without time pressure and without feedback (no stress). Experiment 1 assigned participants to a hedonic (vs. neutral) consumption task and then measured impulse control via a color-word Stroop task. Experiment 2 measured self-control as a second independent variable and recorded hedonic (vs. neutral) consumption. The results show that moderate stress buffered the negative effect that hedonic consumption has on self-regulation under no stress conditions and that high rather than low self-control predicts hedonic over neutral consumption under stress. These findings indicate that hedonic consumption in response to moderate stress may be a strategic choice to reap the pleasure benefit of hedonic consumption while the costs to self-regulation are low.

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“…Acute psychological stress can influence various cognitive processes, ranging from perception and memory to social action (Chajut & Algom, ; Kohn, Hermans, & Fernández, ; Plessow, Schade, Kirschbaum, & Fischer, ; Vogel, Fernández, Joëls, & Schwabe, ). In response to threat, the salience network (SN) activity is upregulated at the cost of executive control network function (Hermans, Henckens, Joels, & Fernandez, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute psychological stress promotes general alertness and attentional control processes: An ERP study

Gao

2020

Psychophysiology

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The current study investigated the influence of acute psychological stress on selective attention processes. After an acute stressor or a control condition, 20 participants performed an arrow‐based version of the Eriksen flanker task, while ERPs (N1, N2, P3), reaction times, accuracy, subjective stress, and electrocardiogram signal were measured. Results showed elevated self‐report stress, negative affect, state anxiety, heart rate, and reduced high‐frequency heart rate variability in the stress block than in the control block, indicating that the flanker task was performed in a stressful situation. In the flanker task, faster response and larger flanker effect of accuracy were observed for the stress block relative to the control block, indicating increased arousal level and improved conflict detection under stress. Event‐related potentials locked to target stimuli in the flanker task revealed that (a) frontal N1 was amplified in the stress block than in the control block, indicating elevated vigilance level under stress; (b) frontal N2 was increased in the stress block than in the control block for both congruent and incongruent trials, indicating more intensive attention control under stress; and (c) Increased P3 in the stress block than in the control block may reflect more allocation of neural resources as a consequence of improved attentional control under stress. These findings suggest that acute psychological stress increases general alertness and promotes attentional control in selective attention processes.

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Successful voluntary recruitment of cognitive control under acute stress

Cited by 28 publications

References 45 publications

Mapping the dose–response relationship between monetary reward and cognitive performance

Mapping the dose–response relationship between monetary reward and cognitive performance

Hedonic Consumption in Times of Stress: Reaping the Emotional Benefits Without the Self-Regulatory Cost

Acute psychological stress promotes general alertness and attentional control processes: An ERP study

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