Male and female Ss performed a two-component monitoring task under 3 conditions of stress, No-stress, Task-related Stress, and Task-unrelated Stress. Dependent variables were reaction time, cumulative responses, and cumulative response errors. The results indicated faster reaction time under conditions of Task-related Stress than during the other two conditions. Differences in cumulative responses and cumulative response errors also occurred over monitoring periods, suggesting improved vigilance with practice. The results were interpreted as indicative of a “protective-adaptive” response to stress, during which S protects himself by adapting within his response repertoire to stressors.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AikenL. R.Jr.Stress and anxiety as homomorphisms. Psychological Record, 1961, 11, 365–372.
2.
CovhraneC. M.Reaction time and intensity of response as a function of anxiety and stress. Dissertation Abstracts, 1960, 20, 2899–2900.
3.
CraigE. A.Situational stress and safety. Personnel Journal, 1966, 45, 269–272.
4.
DassS. L., & BhattacharyaR. J.Effect of simulated underwater condition on psycho-physical performance. Indian Journal of Applied Psychology, 1964, 1 (2), 71–77. (Psychological Abstracts, 1965, 39, No. 4223.)
5.
DesideratoO.Effect of anxiety and stress on reaction time and temporal generalization. Psychological Reports, 1964, 14, 51–58.
6.
FarberI. E., & SpenceK. W.Effects of anxiety, stress and task variables on reaction time. Journal of Personality, 1956, 25, 1–17.
7.
FreedmanP. E.Human maze learning as a function of stress and partial reinforcement. Psychological Reports, 1966, 18, 975–981.
8.
GarveyW. D., & HensonJ. B.Interactions between display gain and task-induced stress in manual tracking. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1959, 43, 205–208.
9.
GuthrieF. A.LoreeM. R., & TraweekM. W.Varying conditions of stress and performance on an academic type test. California Journal of Educational Research, 1966, 17, 41–47.
10.
HeilbrunA. B.Jr.The effects of various shock-stress conditions upon a complex perceptual-motor task. Journal of Personality, 1959, 27, 285–299.
11.
IndikB. P.Relationship between job-related stress and strain in industrial workers. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 1964, 2, 22–27.
12.
JacobsP. D.The effects of stress on human performance of a two component task. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Baylor Univer., 1967.
13.
KirkR. E.Experimental design: procedures for the behavioral sciences. Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1968.
14.
NashE. L.PhelanJ. G.DemasG., & BittnerA.Effects of manifest and induced anxiety and experimenter variability on simple reaction time. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1966, 22, 483–487.
15.
SelyeH.The stress of life. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
16.
WernimontP. E.Intrinsic and extrinsic factors in job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1966, 50, 41–50.
