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Updated: Nov 30, 2025
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Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm
Published on: May 4, 2020
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Human and machine-induced social stress and cognitive performance
Juergen Sauer1, Amélie Jeanneret1, Ondina Smargiassi1
1Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Ergonomics
|November 12, 2020
Summary
Social stress negatively impacts affect and self-esteem but does not impair cognitive work performance. This suggests humans can maintain task performance even under challenging social conditions, supporting the blank-out mechanism.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Occupational Health
Background:
- Social stress, including negative feedback and ostracism, is prevalent in work environments.
- Understanding its impact on cognitive performance is crucial for employee well-being and productivity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of experimentally induced social stress on cognitive task performance.
- To examine the influence of social stress on affect and self-esteem.
Main Methods:
- A laboratory study with 102 participants exposed to machine-induced stress, human-induced stress, or no stress.
- Performance was assessed using attention, divergent, and convergent creativity tasks.
- State self-esteem and affect were measured using validated questionnaires.
Main Results:
- Social stress significantly increased negative affect and decreased state self-esteem.
- No significant impairment in attention, divergent, or convergent creativity performance was observed.
- No performance differences were found between human-induced and machine-induced stress conditions.
Conclusions:
- Despite negative impacts on emotional state and self-perception, social stress does not necessarily impair cognitive performance.
- Findings support the 'blank-out' mechanism, highlighting human resilience in maintaining performance under stress.
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