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    Stress

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    The document summarizes three experiments that tested three perspectives on how stress affects selective attention. The experiments used the Garner interference and Stroop effect tests under low and high stress conditions. The results supported the attention approach theory that stress increases selective attention to task-relevant elements by reducing attention to irrelevant elements.

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    Stress

    Uploaded by

    00GO
    17 views1 page
    The document summarizes three experiments that tested three perspectives on how stress affects selective attention. The experiments used the Garner interference and Stroop effect tests under low and high stress conditions. The results supported the attention approach theory that stress increases selective attention to task-relevant elements by reducing attention to irrelevant elements.

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    Garner Interference and Stroop Effect

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    The document summarizes three experiments that tested three perspectives on how stress affects selective attention. The experiments used the Garner interference and Stroop effect tests under low and high stress conditions. The results supported the attention approach theory that stress increases selective attention to task-relevant elements by reducing attention to irrelevant elements.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    17 views1 page

    Stress

    Uploaded by

    00GO
    The document summarizes three experiments that tested three perspectives on how stress affects selective attention. The experiments used the Garner interference and Stroop effect tests under low and high stress conditions. The results supported the attention approach theory that stress increases selective attention to task-relevant elements by reducing attention to irrelevant elements.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Summary:

    Through a series of experiments using Garner Interference and Stroop Effect the journal challenged three influential
    perspectives of social cognition with differing predictions on selectivity of attention/performance under low stress and
    high stress conditions. First is the Attention Approach theory which states that stress increases selective attention to
    the task relevant elements by reducing use of or focus to task irrelevant elements. Second, the Capacity-Resource
    theory states that stress depletes attentional resources wherefore selectivity fails for all but chronically accessible
    information. The last perspective, Thought suppression approach, too affirms that selective attention fails under
    stress but adds that task-irrelevant information is rendered hyperaccessible. The results were proved consistent with
    the prediction of the attention view revealing higher selectivity in participants attention under high stress condition
    versus low stress.
    Highlights:
    The highlights of the journal are the results of the three experiments. The first experiment showed that stress reduced
    interference by the same amount regardless of whether the distractor dimension was word, color, picture, or
    geometric form. The participants focused exclusively on the target dimension when performing under high stress
    compared to performing under low stress. The results disagreed with Capacity Resource Theory because selective
    attention increased under stress whether the stimuli were semantic (word, picture) or physical (color, shape). The
    findings of improved selectivity stood also in direct opposition to the Thought Suppression account because the
    participants did not suffer enhanced intrusions from task irrelevant information under conditions of high stress. The
    results support the attention view by showing that people are able to focus on the target attribute better under high
    stress than low stress. It further states that selective attention always narrows under stress. In experiment 2 where
    noise was used as source of stress, participants showed better selectivity under stress; a result which only Attention
    theory predicts. Experiment 3 removed motivation as it did not exert an effect on the selectivity of attention. It
    showed that selective attention improves only under heightened stress but remains unchanged under heightened
    motivation.
    The conclusion of the study states that, from a pragmatic point of view, the effects of stress is not uniformly unsavory
    and harmful. They are actually beneficial when the task requires exclusive focusing on target information. However,
    tasks that require integration of information from several sources may be vulnerable to the effects of stress.
    Nevertheless, these differential effects of stress are not qualified by the nature of the task components at hand. .

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