@article{Arousal-Performance:3039,
      recid = {3039},
      author = {Mesghina, Almaz},
      title = {From Distress to "Eustress": Contextual and Cognitive  Factors in the Arousal-Performance Relationship},
      publisher = {The University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2021-06},
      pages = {128},
      abstract = {How can we strike a balance between motivating individuals  to perform their best without unduly stressing them? In  other words, how can we shift our experiences of stress  from bad (distress) to good (eustress; Selye, 1956)? One  approach is to optimize, rather than simply reduce, the  amount of arousal one experiences while performing. Arousal  subsumes psychological states of pressure, stress, and  anxiety. Using the inverted-U model of arousal and  performance as a guide, whereby moderate arousal  facilitates performance more so than low or high arousal,  this dissertation examines how features of the performance  context (including the severity, relevancy, and  controllability of a stressor, the uncertainty while  performing, and the motivation to perform) can in turn  influence cognitive task engagement (task-directed  attention and effort). As I show, these contextual and  cognitive factors can inform 1) when and how heightened  states of psychological arousal may optimize or threaten  individuals’ cognitive performance, and 2) the utility and  efficacy of emotion regulation strategies to help  downregulate arousal. Importantly, across four studies, I  show that there is no uniform effect of context, cognitive  engagement, or emotion regulation on performance in  heightened arousal states. Rather, each factor interacts to  determine whether arousal threatens or optimizes  performance.

Specifically, in Chapters 2 and 3, I examined  the arousal-performance relationship by manipulating a  performance pressure prior to undergraduates’ completing  two cognitive tasks in the laboratory with some (Chapter 2)  and no certainty (Chapter 3) in their performance. I show  that this transient, task-relevant, low severity, and  controllable stressor facilitated performance on a working  memory task by increasing participants’ task-directed  effort, suggesting that the pressure induced a moderate,  optimal amount of arousal. For those in the pressure  condition, I also manipulated instructions to reappraise  feelings of arousal, but found no difference between  reappraisal and no reappraisal groups in any performance or  affective outcomes. Because arousal was already optimized,  there likely was no need for downregulation of arousal,  hence rendering reappraisal unnecessary.

In Chapters 4 and  5, I examined the arousal-performance relationship during  learning versus performance and with a different stressor:  distress about the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to the  experimental pressure induction paradigm in Chapters 2 and  3, the COVID-19 pandemic is an enduring, task-irrelevant,  higher severity, and uncontrollable stressor. I show that  higher distress threatened performance by decreasing  task-directed attention. Furthermore, in Chapter 5, I show  that mindfulness instructions protected individuals from  becoming too distracted, though this did not necessarily  translate to gains in learning. Thus, these findings  suggest that COVID-19 distress pushed individuals to the  rightmost side of the inverted-U, where heightened arousal  was overwhelming and no longer adaptive. In contrast to  Chapters 2 and 3, where pressure optimized performance,  here I show that emotion regulation strategies have greater  potential utility when arousal is experienced in excess.  Thus, in order to optimize arousal and performance, this  dissertation highlights the importance of simultaneously  considering performance context, its consequences for  cognitive engagement, and how these in turn influence the  utility and efficacy of emotion regulation.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/3039},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.3039},
}