Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

High-Level and Low-Level Awareness01:19

High-Level and Low-Level Awareness

581
Controlled processes in human consciousness represent high-alert mental states where individuals deliberately focus their attention on achieving specific goals. Controlled processes can be seen in situations like mastering new technology, where a person might become so absorbed that they ignore surrounding distractions. Such processes involve selective attention, requiring one to concentrate on particular elements of experience while disregarding others. These are governed by executive...
581
Subconsciousness and No Awareness01:15

Subconsciousness and No Awareness

587
The concept of subconscious awareness refers to the processing of information below the level of conscious thought, which significantly influences both behaviors and decisions. It is also known as waking subconscious awareness. This complex level of cognition operates without the direct awareness of the individual, facilitating rapid and simultaneous handling of multiple information streams.
An illustrative example of subconscious processing is its role in problem-solving. Often, individuals...
587
Subliminal Perception01:15

Subliminal Perception

655
Subliminal perception refers to the processing of sensory information that occurs below the level of conscious awareness. Researchers study subliminal perception by presenting a stimulus, such as a word or image, very quickly, typically around 50 milliseconds. This rapid presentation is often followed by another stimulus, such as a pattern of dots or lines, which blocks further mental processing of the initial stimulus. As a result, if participants cannot identify the initial stimulus better...
655
Self-Regulation01:25

Self-Regulation

175
Self-regulation, also known as self-control, encompasses a range of cognitive and behavioral processes that allow individuals to adjust their internal states and outward actions to align with socially acceptable norms and long-term goals. It plays a fundamental role in adaptive functioning, from resisting impulsive behaviors to persisting through challenging tasks. While its benefits are widely recognized, self-regulation is not limitless. Muraven and Baumeister's theory posits that...
175

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Divergent modes of episodic organization underlie whether emotional learning enhances memory across event boundaries.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same author

Stress disrupts hippocampal integration of overlapping events and memory inference in humans.

Science advances·2026
Same author

Cortex-wide Dynamics of Internal Decisions About Behavioral Context.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Prediction Error-Related Memory Enhancement Depends on the Neural State Surrounding the Prediction Error Event.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025
Same author

The STRESS-EU database: A European resource of human acute stress studies for the worldwide research community.

Neuroscience applied·2025
Same author

Enhanced Performance Monitoring as a Transdiagnostic Risk Marker of the Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum: The Role of Disorder Category, Clinical Status, Family Risk, and Anxiety Dimensions.

Depression and anxiety·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Touchscreen Sustained Attention Task SAT for Rats
09:31

Touchscreen Sustained Attention Task SAT for Rats

Published on: September 15, 2017

10.2K

Blocking under stress: Sustained attention to stimuli without predictive value?

Franziska Magdalena Kausche1, Lars Schwabe1

  • 1University of Hamburg, Department of Cognitive Psychology, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
|January 9, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Stress impairs efficient learning by disrupting attention to predictive stimuli. Even when learning is blocked, stress causes sustained attention to irrelevant cues, hindering information processing.

Keywords:
AttentionBlockingFear conditioningPredictive learningStress

More Related Videos

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
09:37

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

9.4K
The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content
07:21

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

Published on: June 29, 2016

41.0K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Touchscreen Sustained Attention Task SAT for Rats
09:31

Touchscreen Sustained Attention Task SAT for Rats

Published on: September 15, 2017

10.2K
Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
09:37

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

9.4K
The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content
07:21

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

Published on: June 29, 2016

41.0K

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Learning is driven by predictive value, guiding attention.
  • Stress modulates learning and memory, but its effect on attention during predictive learning is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how stress impacts attentional processing during predictive learning.
  • To determine if stress affects the classic blocking effect and attention allocation.

Main Methods:

  • Combined electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking.
  • Used a fear conditioning paradigm with stress manipulation to probe the blocking effect.
  • Measured attentional processing via fixation durations, N2pc, late positive potentials, and P3b.

Main Results:

  • Participants showed a blocking effect regardless of stress.
  • Control group exhibited preferential attention to predictive stimuli (differential fixation, N2pc).
  • Stress abolished this preferential processing, leading to sustained attention to low-value stimuli (increased late positive potentials) and overall increased P3b.

Conclusions:

  • Stress disrupts efficient attentional allocation during predictive learning.
  • Stress impairs information processing by reducing attention to predictive cues and increasing attention to irrelevant ones.
  • Findings highlight the role of attention in fear learning and suggest stress hinders efficient processing based on prior experiences.