Development of a Protocol for Simultaneous Assessment of Cognitive Functioning Under Psychosocial Stress

ABSTRACT

This study presents a protocol for induction of moderate psychosocial stress and investigates its impact on psychological and physiological responses. The proposed procedure was designed to enable researchers to assess cognitive performance under effect of various classes of stressors. The protocol's structure contains three main periods: baseline, assessment, and recovery. The assessment stage starts with task anticipation, during which audience (three-member commission) is introduced and apparatus (cameras, microphones, lights, and physiological measuring devices) stationed. Subsequently, cognitive performance was tested. The protocol was evaluated on 56 university students that were randomly assigned to control or stress (protocol) treatment and administered three cognitive tests (working memory operation span, remote associates test, and semantic fluency). Compared to control sessions, protocol induced state anxiety, interfering worry thoughts, and disturbance during recovery period. In addition, the stress group also showed elevated levels of skin conductance, higher average heart rates, and larger drops in peripheral temperature. Even though more research is needed, these results suggest that the protocol effectively induces both psychological and physiological stress responses and therefore encourages utilization in cognitive-affective and cognitive-biological fields of research.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• assessment
• cognition
• stress
• coping

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Drahomír Michalko and Anton Kováč for help with data collection.

Funding

This research was supported in part by Slovak Research and Development Agency, grant APVV-0496-12, and by Scientific grant agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and of Slovak Academy of Sciences, grant VEGA 1/1110/12.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Marko

Martin Marko is a researcher at the Comenius University in Bratislava. His current research interests concern modulation of cognition under stress and anxiety, structure and dynamics of idea generation, and cognitive flexibility.