Feeling rushed? Perceived time pressure impacts executive function and stress

Bibliographic Data

ID21283527
AuthorsRachel F Sussman (0000-0002-7871-2716, Brandeis University, corresponding author), Robert Sekuler (0000-0002-2519-4943, Brandeis University)
Year2022
Volume229
Pages103702
Publication date2022-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Psychologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6918 • E-ISSN: 1873-6297
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103702
PMID35985154
OpenAlexW4292061653
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited47

Executive function (EF) is critical to everyday life, but it can be undermined by adverse psychological states like stress and negative affect. For example, inadequate time to perform a task is a common stressor that can disrupt EF. Although the impact of actual time pressure on EF has been established, little is known about how self-generated, perceived time pressure (PTP) affects EF in the absence of objective time limits. We chose Eriksen's Flanker task as an index of cognitive inhibition, a key component of EF, and we varied the interval between successive trials, the inter-trial interval (ITI), to proxy PTP. This manipulation strongly impacted task performance: shrinking the ITI to increase PTP diminished cognitive inhibition and increased both stress and negative affect. Subsequently lengthening the ITI to decrease PTP reversed nearly all of these effects, except stress, which persisted. Multilevel linear regression modeling revealed that ITI and stress predicted inhibition, and exploratory mediation modeling suggested that stress mediates the relationship between ITI and inhibition. These findings validate perceived time pressure as an empirical stressor and demonstrate EF's sensitivity to changes in PTP

Affect (linguistics) · Cognition · Developmental psychology · Feeling · Mediation · Multilevel model · Occupational stress · Statistics · Stress (linguistics) · Stressor · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Clinical Psychology · Communication · Mental Health Research Topics · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Psychology

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