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Description
Stress can negatively impact performance. The negative impact can be modulated through cognitive appraisals. The two types of cognitive appraisals are how people perceive a situation and have different implications for how people experience difficult, potentially stressful tasks. A threat appraisal tends to elicit negative emotions, whereas a challenge appraisal tends to elicit positive emotions. Emotions elicited from a cognitive appraisal also affect attention and were hypothesized to have different performance implications for central versus peripheral aspects of the task. Sixty-three participants recruited from a large southwestern university were randomly assigned to a threat or challenge appraisal condition. They performed a timed, stressful, novel, and complex card categorization task. Participants with the threat appraisal felt more negative emotions and perceived the task to be more stressful and difficult than participants with a threat appraisal. Performance on central aspects, peripheral aspects, and overall were not affected by appraisal.
ContributorsYang, Charles (Author) / Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12