The impact of stress experience on heart rate and task performance in the presence of a novel stressor.

The impact of prior stress experience on heart rate and task performance in the presence of a novel stressor was studied. During a training phase 42 female students were required to solve arithmetical problems under conditions of either no stressor, delayed auditory feedback, or distraction. Subsequently in a testing phase all subjects performed the same task in the presence of delayed auditory feedback. Training in the presence of stress resulted in decreased heart rate and better performance in the testing phase. These data were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that training under stress-inducing conditions increases stress resistance which generalizes to a novel stressor and which leads subjects to experience the novel stressor as being less stressful.