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.
Details
Title
- Effects of Cognitive Appraisals on Central and Peripheral Performance in a Novel and Stressful Card Categorization Task
Contributors
- Yang, Charles (Author)
- Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director)
- Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member)
- Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
- Department of Psychology (Contributor)
- Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2016-12
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