title: When bad stress goes good: increased threat reactivity predicts improved category learning performance.
abstract: The way in which we respond to everyday stressors can have a profound impact on cognitive functioning. Maladaptive stress responses in particular are generally associated with impaired cognitive performance. We argue, however, that the cognitive system mediating task performance is also a critical determinant of the stress-cognition relationship. Consistent with this prediction, we observed that stress reactivity consistent with a maladaptive, threat response differentially predicted performance on two categorization tasks. Increased threat reactivity predicted enhanced performance on an information-integration task (i.e., learning is thought to depend upon a procedural-based memory system), and a (nonsignificant) trend for impaired performance on a rule-based task (i.e., learning is thought to depend upon a hypothesis-testing system). These data suggest that it is critical to consider both variability in the stress response and variability in the cognitive system mediating task performance in order to fully understand the stress-cognition relationship.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Maine, 5742 Little Hall, Room 301, Orono, ME 04469-5742, USA. shawn.ell@umit.maine.edu
authors.forename: Shawn W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Ell
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cosley
authors.forename: Shannon K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: McCoy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002302:Cardiac Output; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D003657:Decision Making; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D012931:Social Environment; D013028:Space Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult