Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 7;14(2):e0210824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210824. eCollection 2019.
Stress can impair cognitive performance, as commonly observed in cognitive performance anxiety (CPA; e.g., test anxiety). Cognitive theories indicate that stress impairs performance by increasing attention to negative thoughts, a phenomenon also known as threat-interference. These theories are mainly supported by findings related to self-report measures of threat-interference or trait anxiety. Our main aim was to test, for the first time in a single study, the hypotheses that acute CPA-related stress negatively affects both working memory (WM) performance and objectively assessed threat-interference during performance. In addition, we aimed to assess the validity of a new stress-induction procedure that was developed to induce acute CPA. Eighty-six females were randomly assigned to a CPA-related stress group (n = 45) or a control group. WM performance and threat-interference were assessed with an n-back task (2-back and 3-back memory loads), using CPA-related words as distracters. The stress group showed higher state anxiety and slower WM performance. Both effects were moderated by trait CPA: the effects were stronger for individuals with higher trait CPA. Finally, trait CPA moderated the effect of stress on threat-interference during higher cognitive load: individuals with higher trait CPA in the stress group showed higher threat-interference. We conclude that acute CPA increases threat-interference and impairs WM performance, especially in vulnerable individuals. The role of threat-interference, cognitive load, and trait anxiety should be taken into account in future research. Finally, our method (combining our stressor and modified n-back task) is effective for studying stress-cognition interactions in CPA.
压力会损害认知表现，这在认知表现焦虑（CPA；例如，考试焦虑）中很常见。认知理论表明，压力通过增加对负面想法的关注来损害表现，这种现象也称为威胁干扰。这些理论主要得到了与威胁干扰的自我报告测量或特质焦虑相关的发现的支持。我们的主要目的是首次在一项单一研究中检验以下假设，即急性 CPA 相关压力会对工作记忆（WM）表现和表现期间客观评估的威胁干扰产生负面影响。此外，我们旨在评估一种新的应激诱导程序的有效性，该程序是为诱导急性 CPA 而开发的。86 名女性被随机分配到 CPA 相关应激组（n = 45）或对照组。使用与 CPA 相关的单词作为干扰项，通过 n 回任务（2 回和 3 回记忆负荷）评估 WM 表现和威胁干扰。应激组表现出更高的状态焦虑和更慢的 WM 表现。这两种效应都受到特质 CPA 的调节：对于特质 CPA 较高的个体，效应更强。最后，特质 CPA 调节了应激对较高认知负荷下的威胁干扰的影响：应激组中特质 CPA 较高的个体表现出更高的威胁干扰。我们得出结论，急性 CPA 会增加威胁干扰并损害 WM 表现，尤其是在易受影响的个体中。在未来的研究中，应考虑威胁干扰、认知负荷和特质焦虑的作用。最后，我们的方法（结合我们的应激源和修改后的 n 回任务）可有效研究 CPA 中的应激-认知相互作用。
