Differential relationship of recent self-reported stress and acute anxiety with divided attention performance

Figures & data

Table I.  Means, standard deviations, and ranges for PSS, STAI, and all continuous performance test outcome variables.

Measure	Mean	SD	Range
PSS	17.57	6.65	5–31
STAI	36.54	11.55	20–66
o-a-s	1.61	2.21	0–10
o-v-s	0.96	1.52	0–5
o-a-d	6.56	4.84	0–23
o-v-d	3.15	3.06	0–14
c-a-s	0.59	1.17	0–7
c-v-s	0.96	1.26	0–5
c-a-d	3.46	2.75	0–16
c-v-d	3.25	2.59	0–11

Note: o, omission errors; c, commission errors; a, auditory continuous performance test; v, visual continuous performance test; s, single task; d, dual task. The CPT variables are the raw (non-transformed) values. N = 54 subjects.

Table II.  Pearson correlations among transformed continuous performance test variables, STAI, and PSS scores.

	PSS	STAI	o-a-s	o-v-s	o-a-d	o-v-d	c-a-s	c-v-s	c-a-d	c-v-d
PSS	–	0.76**	0.03	0.04	0.18	0.19	0.27	− 0.04	0.18	0.01
STAI		–	0.05	− 0.01	− 0.04	0.15	0.17	− 0.01	− 0.03	− 0.09
o-a-s			–	0.13	0.62**	0.39**	0.56**	− 0.18	0.51**	0.12
o-v-s				–	0.22	0.31*	0.19	0.42**	0.09	0.01
o-a-d					–	0.53**	0.34**	− 0.09	0.69*	0.23
o-v-d						–	0.30**	0.02	0.40**	0.25
c-a-s							–	0.07	0.28**	0.13
c-v-s								–	− 0.19	0.13
c-a-d									–	0.09
c-v-d										–

Note: All continuous performance test variables were transformed with a square root function prior to the correlations.

*p < 0.05 (two-tailed); **p < 0.01 (two-tailed); PSS, perceived stress scale; STAI, state trait inventory; o, omission errors; c, commission errors; a, auditory continuous performance test; v, visual continuous performance test; s, single task; d, dual task. N = 54 subjects.

Figure 1 The relationship between the PSS and number of omission errors from the auditory dual task condition. Data for all 54 subjects are shown. There is a significant correlation (p < 0.01); no significant relationship was found for visual omission errors in the dual task and the PSS (not shown).