Acute stress negatively impacts on-task behavior and lecture comprehension.
Anisa Morava1, Ali Shirzad1, James Van Riesen1
1School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Plos One
|February 6, 2024
Summary
Acute stress increases mind wandering and decreases lecture comprehension in young adults. State anxiety after stress correlates with more mind wandering and poorer understanding.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Stress Research
Background:
- Acute stress is known to impair cognitive functions, including learning and memory.
- Mind wandering, or task-unrelated thoughts, can interfere with information processing and comprehension.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of acute stress on mind wandering during a lecture.
- To assess the effect of acute stress on subsequent lecture comprehension in young adults.
Main Methods:
- Forty participants were randomly assigned to either an acute stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test) or a rest condition.
- Participants watched a video lecture with embedded probes to assess mind wandering, followed by a comprehension test.
- Physiological and psychological stress responses (heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol, anxiety) were measured.
Main Results:
- The acute stress group exhibited increased mind wandering early in the lecture and lower overall lecture comprehension.
- Higher post-stress state anxiety was linked to more mind wandering and reduced lecture comprehension.
- Mind wandering later in the lecture (third checkpoint) showed a negative correlation with final comprehension scores.
Conclusions:
- Acute stress significantly disrupts cognitive processes, leading to increased mind wandering and decreased learning.
- Mind wandering, particularly when occurring later in a learning task, is detrimental to comprehension under stress.
- These findings highlight the interconnectedness of acute stress, attentional control (mind wandering), and academic performance.
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