Cognitive task performance under (combined) conditions of a metabolic and sensory stressor
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Cognitive task performance under (combined) conditions of a metabolic and sensory stressor Charelle Bottenheft1,2 · Anne‑Marie Brouwer1 · Ivo Stuldreher1,2 · Eric Groen1 · Jan van Erp1,2 Received: 14 May 2020 / Accepted: 27 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Effects of stressors on cognitive task performance have primarily been studied in isolation, and little is known about the combined effects of two or more stressors. This study examined how a metabolic stressor (skipping breakfast) and a sensory stressor (noise) affect cognitive task performance in isolation and combined. In addition to performance, we collected physiological and subjective data to get insight in the underlying mechanisms. Twenty participants came to the lab twice, once after skipping breakfast, and once after a standardized breakfast. They performed runs of the 2-back task and the International Shopping List Task, which were alternately presented with and without noise. During the 2-back task, electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded. Subjective ratings on effort and stress were also collected. No interaction effects between the two stressors on cognitive performance were found. Skipping breakfast did not cause hypoglycemia, but resulted in subjective discomfort and a lower state of arousal (as indicated by lower heart rate and EDA). These may underly the trend for more missed responses on the 2-back task after breakfast skipping. Noise appeared to generate arousal and increased attention (reflected in higher EDA and P300) in accordance with higher experienced load and stress. This is consistent with less missed 2-back responses in noise conditions. The results indicate that individuals spent extra effort to maintain task performance in the presence of noise. We propose to use a model that, besides additional effort, takes the effect of stressors on performance into account. Keywords Cognition · Workload · Noise · Hypoglycemia · Physiology
1 Introduction In many professions, individuals have to perform cognitive tasks under various physical or mental stressors, or a combination of these. One can think of military personnel, workers in the industrial production sector, or police officers working on challenging tasks while being exposed to different stressors, like noise, psychological stress, thermal heat, or food deprivation during their work. The effect of these stressors on cognitive performance is often negative, but sometimes also positive (Paulus et al. 2009). A systematic review by Martin et al. (2019) indicates that there is a
* Charelle Bottenheft [email protected] 1
Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Human Factors, Soesterberg, The Netherlands
Human Media Interaction, Computer Science, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
2
growing interest in the impact of environmental stressors on cognitive performance. Effects of environmental stressors on performance have usually been stu
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