Trait self-focused attention, task difficulty, and effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Social-evaluative threat, cognitive load, and the cortisol and cardiovascular stress response

BACKGROUND

Current evidence suggests that exposure to social-evaluative threat (SET) can elicit a physiological stress response, especially cortisol, which is an important regulatory hormone. However, an alternative explanation of these findings is that social-evaluative laboratory tasks are more difficult, or confer greater cognitive load, than non-evaluative tasks. Thus, the current experiment tested whether social-evaluative threat, rather than cognitive load, is truly an "active ingredient" in eliciting a cortisol response to stressors.

METHODS

Healthy undergraduate students (N = 142, 65% female) were randomly assigned to one of four speech-stressor conditions in a fully-crossed two (social-evaluative threat [SET] manipulation: non-SET versus SET) by two (cognitive load manipulation: low versus high) stressor manipulation. Social-evaluative threat was manipulated by the presence (SET) or absence (non-SET) of two evaluators, while cognitive load was manipulated by the presence (LOAD) or absence (non-LOAD) of a tone-counting task during the speech stressor. Salivary cortisol and cardiovascular measures were taken before, during, and after the speech stressor.

RESULTS

Compared to the non-SET condition, SET condition led to greater cortisol and cardiovascular responses to the speech stressor. There were no main or additive effects of cognitive load on cortisol and cardiovascular responses to the speech stressor.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that social-evaluative threat is a central aspect of stressors that elicits a cortisol response; however we found no evidence that increased difficulty, or cognitive load, contributed to greater cardiovascular or cortisol responses to stressors.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are related to cardiovascular responses to active, but not passive, coping tasks

Objective:

Anxiety and depression have been linked to blunted blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) reactions to mental stress tests; however, most studies have not included indices of underlying hemodynamics nor multiple stress tasks. This study sought to examine the relationships of anxiety and depression with hemodynamic responses to acute active and passive coping tasks.

Methods:

A total of 104 participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales and mental arithmetic, speech, and cold pressor tasks while BP, HR, total peripheral resistance, and cardiac output (CO) were assessed.

Results:

After adjustment for traditional risk factors and baseline cardiovascular activity, depression scores were negatively associated with systolic BP, HR, and CO responses to the mental arithmetic task, while anxiety scores were inversely related to the systolic BP response to mental arithmetic.

Conclusion:

High anxiety or depression scores appear to be associated with blunted cardiac reactions to mental arithmetic (an active coping task), but not to the cold pressor test or speech tasks. Future research should further examine potential mechanisms and longitudinal pathways relating depression and anxiety to cardiovascular reactivity.

Clinical trial registration number:

TCTR20160208004

Do depressive symptoms "blunt" effort? An analysis of cardiac engagement and withdrawal for an increasingly difficult task

Research on depression and effort has suggested "depressive blunting"-lower cardiovascular reactivity in response to challenges and stressors. Many studies, however, find null effects or higher reactivity. The present research draws upon motivational intensity theory, a broad model of effort that predicts cases in which depressive symptoms should increase or decrease effort. Because depressive symptoms can influence task-difficulty appraisals-people see tasks as subjectively harder-people high in depressive symptoms should engage higher effort at objectively easier levels of difficulty but also quit sooner. A sample of adults completed a mental effort challenge with four levels of difficulty, from very easy to difficult-but-feasible. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the CESD and DASS; effort-related cardiac activity was assessed via markers of contractility (e.g., the cardiac pre-ejection period [PEP]) obtained with impedance cardiography. The findings supported the theory's predictions. When the task was relatively easier, people high in depressive symptoms showed higher contractility (shorter PEP), consistent with greater effort. When the task was relatively harder, people high in depressive symptoms showed diminished contractility, consistent with quitting. The results suggest that past research has been observing a small part of a larger trajectory of trying and quitting, and they illustrate the value of a theoretically grounded analysis of depressive symptoms and effort-related cardiac activity.

Decreased reaction time variability is associated with greater cardiovascular responses to acute stress

Cardiovascular (CV) responses to mental stress are prospectively associated with poor CV outcomes. The association between CV responses to mental stress and reaction times (RTs) in aging individuals may be important but warrants further investigation. The present study assessed RTs to examine associations with CV responses to mental stress in healthy, older individuals using robust regression techniques. Participants were 262 men and women (mean age = 63.3 ± 5.5 years) from the Whitehall II cohort who completed a RT task (Stroop) and underwent acute mental stress (mirror tracing) to elicit CV responses. Blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability were measured at baseline, during acute stress, and through a 75‐min recovery. RT measures were generated from an ex‐Gaussian distribution that yielded three predictors: mu‐RT, sigma‐RT, and tau‐RT, the mean, standard deviation, and mean of the exponential component of the normal distribution, respectively. Decreased intraindividual RT variability was marginally associated with greater systolic (B = −.009, SE = .005, p = .09) and diastolic (B = −.004, SE = .002, p = .08) blood pressure reactivity. Decreased intraindividual RT variability was associated with impaired systolic blood pressure recovery (B = −.007, SE = .003, p = .03) and impaired vagal tone (B = −.0047, SE = .0024, p = .045). Study findings offer tentative support for an association between RTs and CV responses. Despite small effect sizes and associations not consistent across predictors, these data may point to a link between intrinsic neuronal plasticity and CV responses.

When it comes to lifestyle recommendations, more is sometimes less: a meta-analysis of theoretical assumptions underlying the effectiveness of interventions promoting multiple behavior domain change

A meta-analysis of 150 research reports summarizing the results of multiple behavior domain interventions examined theoretical predictions about the effects of the included number of recommendations on behavioral and clinical change in the domains of smoking, diet, and physical activity. The meta-analysis yielded 3 main conclusions. First, there is a curvilinear relation between the number of behavioral recommendations and improvements in behavioral and clinical measures, with a moderate number of recommendations producing the highest level of change. A moderate number of recommendations is likely to be associated with stronger effects because the intervention ensures the necessary level of motivation to implement the recommended changes, thereby increasing compliance with the goals set by the intervention, without making the intervention excessively demanding. Second, this curve was more pronounced when samples were likely to have low motivation to change, such as when interventions were delivered to nonpatient (vs. patient) populations, were implemented in nonclinic (vs. clinic) settings, used lay community (vs. expert) facilitators, and involved group (vs. individual) delivery formats. Finally, change in behavioral outcomes mediated the effects of number of recommended behaviors on clinical change. These findings provide important insights that can help guide the design of effective multiple behavior domain interventions.

Effort Deficits and Depression: The Influence of Anhedonic Depressive Symptoms on Cardiac Autonomic Activity During a Mental Challenge

Motivational approaches to depression emphasize the role of dysfunctional motivational dynamics, particularly diminished reward and incentive processes associated with anhedonia. A study examined how anhedonic depressive symptoms, measured continuously across a wide range of severity, influenced the physiological mobilization of effort during a cognitive task. Using motivational intensity theory as a guide, we expected that the diminished incentive value associated with anhedonic depressive symptoms would reduce effort during a "do your best" challenge (also known as an unfixed or self-paced challenge), in which effort is a function of the value of achieving the task's goal. Using impedance cardiography, two cardiac autonomic responses were assessed: pre-ejection period (PEP), a measure of sympathetic activity and our primary measure of interest, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure of parasympathetic activity. As expected, PEP slowed from baseline to task as anhedonic depressive symptoms increased (as measured with the DASS Depression scale), indicating diminished effort-related sympathetic activity. No significant effects appeared for RSA. The findings support motivational intensity theory as a translational model of effort processes in depression and clarify some inconsistent effects of depressive symptoms on effort-related physiology found in past work.

Gritty people try harder: grit and effort-related cardiac autonomic activity during an active coping challenge

Grit, a recently proposed personality trait associated with persistence for long-range goals, predicts achievement in a wide range of important life outcomes. Using motivational intensity theory, the present research examined the physiological underpinnings of grit during an active coping task. Forty young adults completed the Short Grit Scale and worked on a self-paced mental effort task. Effort-related autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity was assessed using impedance cardiography, which yielded measures of sympathetic activity (pre-ejection period; PEP) and parasympathetic activity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA). Multilevel models revealed that people high on the Perseverance of Effort subscale showed autonomic coactivation: both PEP and RSA became stronger during the task, reflecting higher activity of both ANS divisions. The Consistency of Interest subscale, in contrast, predicted only weaker sympathetic activity (slower PEP). Taken together, the findings illuminate autonomic processes associated with how "gritty" people pursue goals, and they suggest that more attention should be paid to the facets' distinct effects.

Trait self-focused attention increases sensitivity to nonconscious primes: evidence from effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

A broad range of primes presented outside of awareness - ranging from emotional faces to people's first names - can influence the physiological mobilization of effort during active coping tasks. Who responds more strongly to implicit cues? Based on models of self-awareness, the present research examined how individual differences in self-focused attention influence sensitivity to nonconscious primes. Adults completed a challenging cognitive task in which two kinds of primes were presented (people's first names and words related to the task's difficulty). Trait self-focus significantly interacted with both primes to predict effort, measured as systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. People high in trait self-focus had significantly higher SBP reactivity when primed with words that made the task seem more important (their first names) and harder (high difficulty words). These findings thus expand the evidence for motivational intensity theory's analysis of implicit processes.

Self-Awareness Without Awareness? Implicit Self-Focused Attention and Behavioral Self-Regulation

Objective self-awareness theory contends that focusing attention on the self initiates an automatic comparison of self to standards. To gain evidence for automatic self-standard comparison processes, two experiments manipulated attention to self with subliminal first-name priming. People completed a computer-based parity task after being instructed that the standard was to be fast or to be accurate. Subliminal first name priming increased behavioral adherence to the explicit standard. When told to be fast, self-focused people made more mistakes and had faster response times; when told to be accurate, self-focused people made fewer mistakes. A manipulation of conscious self-awareness (via a mirror) had the same self-regulatory effects. The findings suggest that comparing self to standards can occur automatically and that it is attention to self, not awareness of the self per se, that evokes self-evaluation.

Mirrors, masks, and motivation: implicit and explicit self-focused attention influence effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Using motivational intensity theory as a framework, three experiments examined how implicit self-focus (manipulated with masked first-name priming) and explicit self-focus (manipulated with a large mirror) influence effort-related cardiovascular activity, particularly systolic blood pressure reactivity. Theories of self-focused attention suggest that both implicit and explicit self-focus bring about self-evaluation and thus make meeting a goal more important. For a "do your best" task of unfixed difficulty, implicit and explicit self-focus both increased effort (Experiment 1) compared to a control condition. For a task that varied in difficulty, implicit and explicit self-focus promoted more effort as the task became increasingly hard (Experiments 2 and 3). Taken together, the findings suggest that implicit and explicit self-processes share a similar motivational architecture. The discussion explores the value of integrating motivational intensity theory with self-awareness theory and considers the emerging interest in implicit aspects of effort regulation.

Gender determination of effort and associated cardiovascular responses: when men place greater value on available performance incentives

Participants were presented an easy or difficult mental addition task and led to believe that they could win a traditionally masculine incentive by meeting a certain performance standard. As expected, blood pressure and heart rate responses during the work period were stronger under difficult conditions than easy ones among men but low under both difficulty conditions among women. Findings support the suggestion from a conceptual analysis grounded in motivation intensity theory that gender differences in cardiovascular response could be partially understood in terms of effort processes that occur where men and women place different value on available performance incentives.

Masked first name priming increases effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Recent research on motivational intensity has shown that explicit manipulations of self-focused attention (e.g., mirrors and video cameras) increase effort-related cardiovascular responses during active coping. An experiment examined whether masked first name priming, an implicit manipulation of self-focused attention, had similar effects. Participants (n=52 young adults) performed a self-paced cognitive task, in which they were told to get as many trials correct as possible within 5min. During the task, the participant's first name was primed for 0%, 33%, 67%, or 100% of the trials. First name priming, regardless of its frequency, significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity, particularly systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. Furthermore, the priming manipulation interacted with individual differences in trait self-focus: trait self-focus predicted higher SBP reactivity in the 0% condition, but first name priming eliminated the effects of individual differences. Implications for self-awareness research and for the emerging interest in priming effects on effort are considered.