Is pressure stressful? The impact of pressure on the stress response and category learning

Abstract

We examined the basic question of whether pressure is stressful. We proposed that when examining the role of stress or pressure in cognitive performance, it is important to consider the type of pressure, the stress response, and the aspect of cognition assessed. In Experiment 1, outcome pressure was not experienced as stressful but did lead to impaired performance on a rule-based (RB) category-learning task, but not on a more procedural information-integration (II) task. In Experiment 2, the addition of monitoring pressure resulted in a modest stress response to combined pressure and impairment on both tasks. Across experiments, higher stress appraisals were associated with decreased performance on the RB, but not on the II, task. In turn, higher stress reactivity (i.e., heart rate) was associated with enhanced performance on the II, but not on the RB, task. This work represents an initial step toward integrating the stress cognition and pressure cognition literatures and suggests that integrating these fields may require consideration of the type of pressure, the stress response, and the cognitive system mediating performance.

Performance pressure enhances speech learning

“…Analogously, this suggests that performance pressure should accentuate reflexive-learning processes and thus should accentuate information-integration category learning. Markman et al (2006) and others (DeCaro et al, 2011; McCoy et al, 2014) applied the distraction hypothesis to rule-based (Figure 1b) and information-integration (Figure 1c) visual category learning and found that pressure did attenuate rule-based category learning while accentuating information-integration category learning. The goal of the current study is to explore the effects of performance pressure on nonnative speech learning.…”

“…The visual category learning literature suggests that pressure attenuates reflective-optimal visual category learning and enhances reflexive-optimal visual category learning via a mechanism that reduces available executive function resources (DeCaro et al, 2011; Markman et al, 2006; McCoy et al, 2014). Recent work suggests that Mandarin tone learning is reflexive optimal.…”

“…Performance pressure has been shown to have a strong impact on the strategies learners use, with performance pressure enhancing processing in the reflexive system at the expense of processing in the reflective system (DeCaro, Thomas, Albert, & Beilock, 2011; Maddox & Markman, 2010; Markman, Maddox, & Worthy, 2006; McCoy, Hutchinson, Hawthorne, Cosley, & Ell, 2014). Thus, pressure enhances reflexive-optimal (information-integration) category learning and attenuates reflective-optimal (rule-based) category learning.…”

Does Acute Stress Impact Declarative and Procedural Learning?

“…Furthermore, the neuroimaging data in the same study revealed hippocampal activity during task performance devoid of the stress manipulation, whereas striatal activation was observed when performing the task under stressful conditions. Stressinduced effects on further procedural striatal-based learning tasks were documented in visual category learning (Markman et al, 2006;Ell et al, 2011;McCoy et al, 2014), speech category learning (Maddox et al, 2016), and reinforcement learning (Cavanagh et al, 2010;Petzold et al, 2010). In the study conducted by Markman et al (2006), participants were convinced that their performance would determine whether they and a fabricated companion would earn a monetary bonus.…”

A difficulty predictor for perceptual category learning

“…If the goal is to increase human categorization performance, it is essential that we start explicitly looking for situations in which humans are likely to fail. There are a variety of factors that affect the difficulty of category learning, ranging from subjective factors such as fatigue or motivation to paradigm and environmental factors such as distractions or pressure (McCoy, Hutchinson, Hawthorne, Cosley, & Ell, 2014). But perhaps an even more fundamental factor is the difficulty of the task itself.…”