Facilitation of Pursuit Rotor Learning by Induced Stress

Abstract
30 Ss practiced the pursuit rotor task over two days. 20 distributed trials were given on Day 1 and 10 further distributed trials 24 hr. later. Ss were randomly assigned to three groups: a related arousal group, an unrelated arousal group, and a control group. Arousal was increased by application of electric shock during Trials 6 to 15 on Day 1. The related arousal group were told they would be shocked if their performance did not reach an established criterion while the unrelated arousal group received random and unavoidable shock. The results showed that performance in the two stress conditions (means of Trials 6 to 15 and 16 to 20) was not different from that of a control group. However, when tested 24 hr. later, both stress groups demonstrated significant ( p < .05) improvements in learning over the control group but no difference between themselves.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: