Is pressure stressful? The impact of pressure on the stress response and category learning.

We examined the basic question of whether pressure is stressful. We proposed that when examining the role of stress or pressure in cognitive performance, it is important to consider the type of pressure, the stress response, and the aspect of cognition assessed. In Experiment 1, outcome pressure was not experienced as stressful but did lead to impaired performance on a rule-based (RB) category-learning task, but not on a more procedural information-integration (II) task. In Experiment 2, the addition of monitoring pressure resulted in a modest stress response to combined pressure and impairment on both tasks. Across experiments, higher stress appraisals were associated with decreased performance on the RB, but not on the II, task. In turn, higher stress reactivity (i.e., heart rate) was associated with enhanced performance on the II, but not on the RB, task. This work represents an initial step toward integrating the stress cognition and pressure cognition literatures and suggests that integrating these fields may require consideration of the type of pressure, the stress response, and the cognitive system mediating performance.