Mental rotation performance after acute stress

The need to mentally rotate objects is common in everyday activities (e.g., driving, loading suitcases in a car, playing 3D video games) and in specific professions (e.g., air traffic controllers, mechanics, pilots, surgeons). Surprisingly, whether stress facilitates or impairs spatial reasoning in these situations remains an open question. Previous research has shown that spatial performance (e.g. navigation, visuospatial memory, attention) can be influenced by acute stress. However, few studies have investigated the effects of stress on mental rotation and these have produced mixed results. In the present study, we examined the influence of cardiovascular indicators of Sympathetic Adrenal Medulla (SAM) activation from an acute laboratory stressor (Paced Serial Addition Task [PASAT]) on mental rotation performance (MRT Accuracy and Response Time).

We assigned young, healthy, volunteer participants (39 men, 41 women; 18-23 years of age) to either a Stress (PASAT) or a Non-Stress (Control) group. All participants completed a Mental Rotation Task (MRT) before (Pretest) and after (Posttest) the PASAT or Control task. Cardiovascular measurements (blood pressure, heart rate) and self-reported affect were obtained to quantify values during a resting state, stress manipulation, MRT Pretest, MRT Posttest, and a Recovery period.

The Stress group reported greater negative affect, less positive affect, and had higher systolic blood pressure than our Non-Stress Control group after our stress manipulation, thus demonstrating that our PASAT stressor was effective at increasing cardiovascular indicators of SAM activation. All participants became faster and more accurate from the MRT Pretest to the Posttest demonstrating a practice effect. Men were more accurate than women in MRT, but contrary to expectations, this sex difference did not change with stress induction. Overall, PASAT stress did not have an influence on MRT speed or accuracy. A regression analysis did not find a relationship between self-reported affect, cardiovascular indicators of SAM activation, and MRT performance.

Our results suggest that being in the Stress group (PASAT) had no influence on mental rotation performance. Future investigations might confirm this in professions performing specific rotation tasks under pressure and should also investigate the effect of physical stressors or stress-induced hypothalamic-pituitary (HPA) axis activation prior to MRT performance.