Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stressors

Abstract

This paper reports two experiments investigating the effect of psychological stressors on performance and cardiovascular function. In the first study, two groups of 24 participants performed a cognitive task and a reaction-time task under different levels of stress created through ego-involvement while heart rate was monitored continuously. In the second study, cardiovascular function was monitored while 20 participants performed a reaction-time task under instructions designed to induce competitive stress. In both studies, differences in reported stress level were found to be associated with significant changes in performance and cardiovascular function with slower cardiovascular recovery following the more stressful condition in the second study. The results are discussed in terms of the use of cardiovascular measures as indices of subjective stress and cognitive load.