Journal
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION
Volume 33, Issue 4, Pages 412-418Publisher
SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1007/s11031-009-9141-5
Keywords
Stroop; Selective attention; Stress; Working memory; Easterbrook's hypothesis
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Stroop interference can be reduced by stress, and this has been taken as evidence that stress decreases the attention paid to irrelevant information, a theory known as 'Easterbrook's hypothesis'. This contradicts more recent theories, which state that attentional control deteriorates in stress. Fifty-five participants undertook a Stroop task under high stress (loud white noise) and low stress conditions. Attention to the irrelevant word information was assessed by manipulating the proportion of congruent trials (e.g. the word RED in the colour red); it is known that Stroop interference increases when many such trials are presented. This effect was reduced when participants were stressed, which is evidence that stress does indeed reduce attention to irrelevant information. This pattern of results was not present in participants with low working memory spans, presumably because these participants had less attentional control. These findings highlight an important weakness in contemporary theories of cognition in stress.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available