Mental rotation performance after acute stress

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Performance

Background:

• Mental rotation is crucial for daily activities and professions.
• The effect of acute stress on spatial reasoning, particularly mental rotation, is not well understood.
• Previous research on stress and spatial performance yielded mixed results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of acute laboratory stress on mental rotation performance.
• To examine cardiovascular indicators of Sympathetic Adrenal Medulla (SAM) activation during a stressor.
• To assess the impact of stress on mental rotation accuracy and response time.

Main Methods:

• Participants were divided into Stress (Paced Serial Addition Task [PASAT]) and Control groups.
• Mental Rotation Task (MRT) performance was assessed before and after the stressor/control condition.
• Cardiovascular measures and self-reported affect were collected to confirm stress induction.

Main Results:

• The stressor effectively increased negative affect and systolic blood pressure, confirming SAM activation.
• A practice effect improved MRT speed and accuracy for all participants.
• Stress did not significantly influence mental rotation speed or accuracy, nor did it alter sex differences in performance.

Conclusions:

• Acute laboratory stress, as induced by PASAT, does not appear to affect mental rotation performance.
• Future research should explore physical stressors or Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis activation on mental rotation.
• Further studies are needed in professional contexts involving high-pressure rotation tasks.