Life Stress and Performance Impairment: The Role of Off-Task Thinking

Abstract

In previous research (Baradell & Klein, 1993; Klein & Barnes, 1994) self-focused attention has moderated the relationship of life stress and verbal problem solving. Stressed individuals highly aware of internal bodily changes made the most errors and used the least effective strategies. How life stress affects information processing on such tasks has not been investigated. In theories (e. g. Humphreys & Revelle, 1984; Eysenck, 1992) that relate personality variables to cognitive processes, off-task thinking is presumed to mediate the relationship between individual differences and performance. In the present study, 35 students who varied in life stress and self-focus solved complex verbal analogies. The results indicated that high levels of stress and self-focus were related to off-task thinking and that off-task thinking was negatively related to performance. However, regression analyses did not support a mediating role for off-task thinking. Rather, off-task thinking may result from poor performance, rather than vice-versa as is assumed in current models.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baradell

Klein

K. W.

(1993). The relationship between life stress, body consciousness and hypervigilant decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 267–273.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.

Eysenck

M. W.

(1992). Attention and arousal: Cognition and performance. Berlin: Springer.

Gentner

Markman

A. B.

(1994). Structural alignment in Comparison. Psychological Science, 5, 152–158.

Humphreys

M. S.

Revelle

(1984). Personality, motivation and performance: A theory of the relationship between individual differences and information processing. Psychological Review, 91, 153–184.

Klein

(1995). The relationship of cognitive interference to performance effectiveness, effort and efficiency on a verbal reasoning task. Manuscript submitted for review.

Klein

Barnes

(1994). The relationship of life stress to problem solving: Task complexity and individual differences. Social Cognition, 12, 187–204.

Kohn

P. M.

Lafreniere

K. Gurevich

, (1990). The Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences: A decontaminated hassles scale for a special population. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 13, 619–630.

Miller

Murphy

Buss

(1981). Consciousness of body: Private and public. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 397–406.

10.

Ross

B. H.

(1987). This is like that: The use of earlier problems and the separation of similarity effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, memory and cognition, 13, 629–639.

11.

Sarason

I. G.

Stoops

(1978). Test anxiety and the passage of time. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 102–109.

12.

Sarason

I. G.

(1984). Stress, anxiety and cognitive interference: Reactions to tests. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 929–938.

13.

Spettell

C M.

Liebert

R. M.

(1986). Training for safety in automated person-machine systems. American Psychologist, 41, 545–550.

14.

Spielberger

(1979) Preliminary manual for the State-Trait personality Inventory (STPD). Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida.

15.

Williams

J. M.

Tonymon

Andersen

M. B.

(1991). The effects of stressors and coping resources on anxiety and peripheral narrowing. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 3, 126–141.