Effects of naturalistic stressors on cognitive flexibility and working memory task performance

Abstract

Experimental stressors impair performance on tasks requiring certain types of cognitive flexibility, an effect that may be mediated by the noradrenergic system. The goal of this experiment was to examine the effects of psychological stress on cognitive flexibility in problem solving and immediate memory with a more naturalistic psychological stressor, and examine the interaction between subject ability and the cognitive effects of psychological stress. Twenty subjects performed the compound remote associates task (CRA) and a number series recall task after watching the first 30 minutes of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and after the first 30 minutes of ‘Shrek’, with condition order and test version order counterbalanced. An interaction effect was observed between stress and subject ability for the CRA, with performance on the CRA significantly worse after the stress film among those performing well on the task. No effects were found on the memory task. Therefore, the naturalistic stressor impairs cognitive flexibility in a manner dependent upon how much difficulty the subject has with these types of tasks. Further work will be necessary to better understand the pharmacological mechanism of the effects of these types of stressors, and the clinical implications of this effect.

Keywords:

• Cognitive flexibility
• Memory
• Stress
• Locus coeruleus
• Norepinephrine
• Creativity

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21 DA015734) and the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke (K23 NS43222). Portions of this research were presented at Society for Neuroscience, 2005. We wish to thank Dr Stephen Kanne for his helpful comments on this manuscript.