Motor Performance under Stress

Stress, introduced late, resulted in a significant decrement in amount of performance improvement for both high and low-anxious subjects, and was significantly inferior to that of all other groups during the stress period.

Abstract

Abstract One hundred and twenty freshmen males, selected on the basis of their extreme scores on the Taylor manifest anxiety scale, served as subjects. Sixty high-anxious and 60 low-anxious subjects were assigned randomly to one of three equal groups: control, stress-early, and stress-late. The subjects were given 35 20-sec. practice trials a day on the stabilometer for two days. An electric shock stressor was given to the stress-early subjects on trials 4 to 6, and to the stress-late subjects on trials 65 to 67. The results support the following conclusions: The early shock had a differential effect upon the improvements in performance of the high-anxious and low-anxious subjects. The low-anxious stress-early group was not affected by the stress but the performance improvement of the high-anxious stress-early group was significantly inferior to that of all other groups during the stress period. Stress, introduced late, resulted in a significant decrement in amount of performance improvement for both high-anxious and low-anxious subjects. Upon removal of the shock stressor, both high-anxious and low-anxious subjects significantly improved in performance, thereby achieving their prestress levels of performance.