Effort determination of cardiovascular response: An integrative analysis with applications in social psychology

Working hard but not tired? The influence of task valuation on mental fatigue, effort investment, and task performance

It has been demonstrated in previous studies that prolonged mental effort exertion evokes mental fatigue and leads to impairments in task performance. In the current investigation, we aimed to test the hypothesis that mental fatigue depends on motivational processes and can be influenced by task valuation. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated the value of the task by financial rewards (Study 1) and the sense of autonomy (Study 2). Contrary to our predictions, those manipulations did not influence the main dependent variables. We also introduced additional rewards after prolonged effort exertion. In line with our expectations, the results showed that mental fatigue increases with time spent on effortful tasks. Importantly, however, mental fatigue decreases when the value of the task rises. This effect is accompanied by stronger effort engagement and improvement in task performance. The findings support the motivational theories of mental effort and fatigue, showing that mental fatigue might serve as a signal of diminishing value of the ongoing task.

Personal task choice attenuates implicit happiness effects on effort: A study on cardiovascular response

Research on the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort model (Gendolla, 2012) found that priming happiness or anger in challenging tasks results in stronger sympathetically mediated cardiovascular responses, reflecting effort, than priming sadness or fear. Recent studies on action shielding revealed that personal task choice can attenuate affective influences on action execution (e.g., Gendolla et al., 2021). The present experiment tested if this action shielding effect also applies to affect primes' influences on cardiovascular response. Participants (N = 136) worked on a cognitive task with integrated briefly flashed and backward masked facial expressions of sadness vs. happiness. Half of the participants could ostensibly choose whether they wanted to work on an attention or on a memory task, while the other half was assigned to one task. Our findings revealed effects on cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP), which align with the expected outcomes for a task of unfixed difficulty where participants establish their own performance standard. Most importantly, task choice shielded against the implicit affective influence on PEP that was evident when the task was externally assigned. Effects on systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity largely corresponded to those of PEP.

Task-evoked pulse wave amplitude tracks cognitive load

Cognitive load is a crucial factor in mentally demanding activities and holds significance across various research fields. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pulse wave amplitude (PWA) as a measure for tracking cognitive load and associated mental effort in comparison to heart rate (HR) during a digit span task. The data from 78 participants were included in the analyses. Participants performed a memory task in which they were asked to memorize sequences of 5, 9, or 13 digits, and a control task where they passively listened to the sequences. PWA and HR were quantified from photoplethysmography (PPG) and electrocardiography (ECG), respectively. Pupil dilation was also assessed as a measure of cognitive load. We found that PWA showed a strong suppression with increasing memory load, indicating sensitivity to cognitive load. In contrast, HR did not show significant changes with task difficulty. Moreover, when memory load exceeded the capacity of working memory, a reversal of the PWA pattern was observed, indicating cognitive overload. In this respect, changes in PWA in response to cognitive load correlated with the dynamics of pupil dilation, suggesting a potential shared underlying mechanism. Additionally, both HR and PWA demonstrated a relationship with behavioral performance, with higher task-evoked HR and lower PWA associated with better memory performance. Our findings suggest that PWA is a more sensitive measure than HR for tracking cognitive load and overload. PWA, measured through PPG, holds significant potential for practical applications in assessing cognitive load due to its ease of use and sensitivity to cognitive overload. The findings contribute to the understanding of psychophysiological indicators of cognitive load and offer insights into the use of PWA as a non-invasive measure in various contexts.

The effect of social comparison on effort: When similar and slightly better peers increase effort-related cardiovascular responses

Social comparison theory states that comparison with others should influence an individual's behavior (Festinger, 1954; Munkes & Diehl, 2003). This is primarily due to an upward pressure: the pressure to be better than others, which according to some theories should motivate individuals to increase their level of performance (Munkes & Diehl, 2003; Rijsman, 1974). The effect of upward pressure on individual performance has been tested, but never on effort. To address this gap, we conducted a within-subject design study with N = 40 participants engaged in five-minute video games while presented with scores of a similar, slightly better, or weaker peer, with a control condition omitting the peer's score. Effort-related cardiovascular responses were recorded with initial systolic time interval (ISTI) during the game and baseline conditions. The effect of social comparison on effort was tested with a 4 (social comparison) x 5 (minutes of the tasks) repeated-measures ANOVA on ISTI reactivity. Results showed higher ISTI reactivity, interpreted as increased effort, when participants competed with similar and slightly better peers compared to a weaker peer and the control condition in the last minute of the task, confirming our expectations (Pegna et al., 2019). These results illustrate that social comparison - through its effect on upward pressure - is sufficient to elicit changes in effort-related cardiovascular response.

Can personal task choice shield against fear and anger prime effects on effort? A study on cardiac response

This experiment tested whether personal task choice can shield against implicit affective influences on sympathetically mediated cardiovascular response, reflecting effort. Participants were N = 121 healthy university students who completed a moderately difficult memory task with integrated briefly flashed and masked fear vs. anger primes. Half of the participants believed they could choose between an attention and a memory task, while the other half was automatically assigned to the task. Replicating previous research, we expected an influence of the affect primes on effort when the task was externally assigned. By contrast, when participants were given a task choice, we predicted strong action shielding and thus a weak implicit affect effect on resource mobilization. As expected, participants in the assigned task condition showed stronger cardiac pre-ejection period reactivity when exposed to fear primes than when processing anger primes. Importantly, this affect prime effect disappeared when participants could ostensibly choose the task. These findings add to other recent evidence for action shielding by personal task choice and importantly extend this effect to implicit affective influences on cardiac reactivity during task performance.

Economic Choice and Heart Rate Fractal Scaling Indicate That Cognitive Effort Is Reduced by Depression and Boosted by Sad Mood

BACKGROUND

People with depression typically exhibit diminished cognitive control. Control is subjectively costly, prompting speculation that control deficits reflect reduced cognitive effort. Evidence that people with depression exert less cognitive effort is mixed, however, and motivation may depend on state affect.

METHODS

We used a cognitive effort discounting task to measure propensity to expend cognitive effort and fractal structure in the temporal dynamics of interbeat intervals to assess on-task effort exertion for 49 healthy control subjects, 36 people with current depression, and 67 people with remitted depression.

RESULTS

People with depression discounted more steeply, indicating that they were less willing to exert cognitive effort than people with remitted depression and never-depressed control subjects. Also, steeper discounting predicted worse functioning in daily life. Surprisingly, a sad mood induction selectively boosted motivation among participants with depression, erasing differences between them and control subjects. During task performance, depressed participants with the lowest cognitive motivation showed blunted autonomic reactivity as a function of load.

CONCLUSIONS

Discounting patterns supported the hypothesis that people with current depression would be less willing to exert cognitive effort, and steeper discounting predicted lower global functioning in daily life. Heart rate fractal scaling proved to be a highly sensitive index of cognitive load, and data implied that people with lower motivation for cognitive effort had a diminished physiological capacity to respond to rising cognitive demands. State affect appeared to influence motivation among people with current depression given that they were more willing to exert cognitive effort following a sad mood induction.

Commentary: Engage or disengage? Interpretations from a resource conservation perspective

In this commentary, I discuss the eight empirical contributions to the Motivation and Emotion special issue on goal disengagement from a resource conservation perspective. This process was not in the focus of the reported studies, but is central for understanding both engaging and disengaging. I will outline that many of the new findings on disengagement reported in this special issue are highly compatible with the predictions of and research on motivational intensity theory. Examples are the roles of commitment, subjective goal value, affective experiences, autonomy, self-awareness, and action planning. These variables have been found to be central for both engagement and disengagement and their consideration in a resource mobilization perspective should contribute to a more complete understanding of “letting go”.

Self-awareness protects working memory in people under chronic stress: An ERP study

Chronic stress impairs working memory (WM), but few studies have explored the protective factors of the impairment. We aimed to investigate the effect of self-awareness on WM processing in people under chronic stress. Participants under chronic stress completed an n-back task after a self-awareness priming paradigm during which electroencephalograms were recorded. The behavioral results showed that participants whose self-awareness was primed reacted faster and more accurately than the controls. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed the following (1) P2 was more positive in the self-awareness group than in the controls, indicating that self-awareness enhanced allocation of attention resources at the encoding stage. (2) N2 was attenuated in the self-awareness group compared with the controls, indicating that smaller attention control efforts were required to complete WM tasks adequately after self-awareness priming; and (3) enhanced late positive potential (LPP) was evoked in the self-awareness group compared with the controls, suggesting self-awareness enabled participants to focus attention resources on the information at the maintenance stage. Critically, mediational analyses showed that LPP mediated the relationship between self-awareness and WM response times. This result suggests that the fact that participants whose self-awareness was primed were able to achieve better behavioral performances may be attributed to their mobilization of sustained attention resources at the maintenance stage. In summary, self-awareness exerted a protective effect on WM in those under chronic stress, which may be due to the enhancements in the allocation and mobilization of attention. These results could be used to develop more specific coping strategies for people under chronic stress.

Avoidant Personality Disorder Symptoms and Cardiovascular Reactivity to Psychological Stress Tasks With Increasing Cognitive Demands

Abstract. This study aimed to investigate whether and how avoidant personality disorder symptoms are related to cardiovascular reactivity to stress tasks with different levels of cognitive demands. The revised Chinese edition of the avoidant personality disorder subscale of Personality Diagnosed Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) was administered to 222 undergraduate students randomly assigned to psychological stress tasks (i.e., mental arithmetic tasks) with low, moderate, or high cognitive demands (manipulated by task difficulty), during which their physiological data were continuously collected. Results showed that avoidant personality disorder symptoms and cognitive demands of tasks interactively predicted systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity. In specific, avoidant personality disorder symptoms were not associated with SBP reactivity under the low- and moderate-demand conditions and DBP reactivity under the low-demand condition but were associated with blunted SBP reactivity under the high-demand condition and blunted DBP reactivity under the moderate- and high-demand conditions. These findings indicate that the association between avoidant personality disorder symptoms and cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress is contingent on the cognitive demands of tasks, which have potential implications for physical health.

The Impact of Pain on Subsequent Effort and Cognitive Performance

Abstract. Theoretical accounts of pain and empirical evidence indicate that pain and cognitive control share common neurocognitive processes. Numerous studies have examined the interactions between pain and cognitive performance when they occur simultaneously, typically showing analgesic effects on task performance and impaired performance due to pain. However, the sequential impact of pain on cognitive control and effort remains less clear. This study investigated the influence of a first task, including painful vs. non-painful thermal stimuli, on effort-related cardiac response and performance in a subsequent moderately difficult cognitive task. Drawing on the hypothesis that experiencing pain should recruit cognitive resources (such as attention and working memory) and reduce perceived ability, we predicted lower task performance and/or stronger compensatory effort in the subsequent cognitive task after the painful than after the non-painful first task. Results support our predictions regarding the effect of pain on subsequent cognitive performance, which was moderately lower after the painful task. However, such a decrease in task proficiency was not associated with a comparable decrease in perceived capacity or increase in effort-related cardiac reactivity. Nevertheless, further correlational analyses indicated that effort and perceived capacity were significantly related to pain ratings. Moderate pain was associated with stronger effort during the cognitive task, whereas high pain led to disengagement, that is, a low effort. Moreover, in line with our predictions, higher pain ratings were associated with a lower self-reported capacity to perform the cognitive task. We discuss these findings regarding the relationship between effort and performance, the impact of fatigue on motivation, and interindividual variability in these after-effects.

Virtual Reality Adaptation Using Electrodermal Activity to Support the User Experience

Virtual reality is increasingly used for tasks such as work and education. Thus, rendering scenarios that do not interfere with such goals and deplete user experience are becoming progressively more relevant. We present a physiologically adaptive system that optimizes the virtual environment based on physiological arousal, i.e., electrodermal activity. We investigated the usability of the adaptive system in a simulated social virtual reality scenario. Participants completed an n-back task (primary) and a visual detection (secondary) task. Here, we adapted the visual complexity of the secondary task in the form of the number of non-player characters of the secondary task to accomplish the primary task. We show that an adaptive virtual reality can improve users’ comfort by adapting to physiological arousal regarding the task complexity. Our findings suggest that physiologically adaptive virtual reality systems can improve users’ experience in a wide range of scenarios.

Differences in stress system (re-)activity between single and dual- or multitasking in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AbstractIn the age of digitization, multitasking requirements are ubiquitous, especially in the workplace. Multitasking (MT) describes the activity of performing multiple (at least two) tasks at the same time. Dual tasking (DT) refers to the sequential switching between two tasks. The aim of our systematic review and meta-analysis was first to investigate whether physiological stress systems become activated in response to or during MT/DT and, secondly, whether this (re-)activity is higher compared to single tasking. We focused on the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, and the immune system. The systematic review has been pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020181415). A total of twenty-five articles were identified as eligible, in which n = 26 studies were reported, with N = 1,142 participants. Our main findings are that SNS activity is significantly higher and PNS activity is significantly lower during MT/DT than during single tasking. Only two studies were found, in which HPA axis (re-)activity was surveyed. No eligible study was identified in which immune system (re-)activity was investigated. This is the first systematic synthesis of the literature base showing that stress system activity is increased during MT/DT in comparison to single-tasking.

Task choice shields against incidental affective influences on effort-related cardiovascular response

In an attempt to integrate theorizing on action shielding with affective influences on effort‐related cardiovascular response, an experiment with N = 115 university students (90% women) tested whether working on a task by personal choice versus external assignment moderates the effect of happy versus sad background music on effort‐related cardiovascular response during task performance. We predicted strong action shielding and low receptivity for incidental affective influences when participants could ostensibly choose the task to be performed. Given the difficult nature of the task, we thus expected strong effort‐related cardiovascular responses due to high commitment when the task was chosen. By contrast, for assigned‐task participants, we expected high receptivity for incidental affective influences and thus predicted strong cardiovascular reactivity when they were exposed to happy music but low responses due to disengagement when they were exposed to sad music. Effects on responses of cardiac pre‐ejection period, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate confirmed our effort‐related predictions. Apparently, personal choice of a task can immunize individuals against incidental affective influences on resource mobilization.

A large-scale study of stress, emotions, and blood pressure in daily life using a digital platform

Exaggerated blood pressure (BP) reactivity is associated with the development of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Stress, and, to a lesser extent, emotions are suggested to be linked to BP reactivity, but this theorizing lacks robust evidence beyond small laboratory or field studies with narrow participant demographics. Using an app-based research study and analyzing more than 330,000 daily responses from over 20,000 people, we show that momentary stress, conceptualized as the perception of demands relative to resources, is associated with greater BP and heart rate reactivity. High-arousal negative emotions are associated with increased physiologic reactivity whereas low-arousal positive emotions are associated with decreased reactivity. These data point to daily stress experiences as likely candidates for improving physical health.

Stress is often associated with pathophysiologic responses, like blood pressure (BP) reactivity, which when experienced repeatedly may be one pathway through which stress leads to poor physical health. Previous laboratory and field studies linking stress to physiological measures are limited by small samples, narrow demographics, and artificial stress manipulations, whereas large-scale studies often do not capture measures like BP reactivity in daily life. We examined perceived stress, emotions, heart rate, and BP during daily life using a 3-wk app-based study. We confirmed the validity of a smartphone-based optic sensor to measure BP and then analyzed data from more than 330,000 daily responses from over 20,000 people. Stress was conceptualized as the ratio of situational demands relative to individual resources to cope. We found that greater demands were associated with higher BP reactivity, but critically, the ratio of demands relative to resources improved prediction of BP changes. When demands were higher and resources were lower, there was higher BP reactivity. Additionally, older adults showed greater concordance between self-reported stress and physiologic responses than younger adults. We also observed that physiologic reactivity was associated with current emotional state, and both valence and arousal mattered. For example, BP increased with high-arousal negative emotions (e.g., anger) and decreased with low-arousal positive emotions (e.g., contentment). Taken together, this work underscores the potential for expanding stress science and public health data using handheld phones to reliably and validly measure physiologic responses linked to stress, emotion, and physical health.

Physiological linkage among successful high-status women in international teams

In contemporary society, decisions are often made by teams whose members represent different nationalities and genders. In the current work, participants from 55 countries formed groups of 3 to 4 people to select one of the 5 firms in a mock firm search. In all groups, one woman was randomly assigned to have higher status than her groupmates; she was also surreptitiously instructed to persuade her group to select one (randomly assigned) firm. We measured cardiac interbeat intervals for participants throughout the decision-making process to assess physiological linkage—the degree to which a ‘sender’s’ physiological response predicts a ‘receiver’s’ physiological response at a subsequent time interval. On average, high-status women were successful at persuasion. The physiological responses of successful high-status women were also predicted by the responses of their female groupmates: stronger linkage to female group members during the task was associated with success at persuading the group. Successful high-status women were also perceived as more persuasive than others in the group. This work shows that the link between status and successful persuasion generalizes to women among heterogeneous international teams. It also suggests that attention to others—often associated with physiological linkage—may be useful in persuading others during decision-making.

The Intensity Side of Volition

Abstract. Attaining sports or health goals requires not only high motivation but also the willpower to translate sport-behavior intentions into successful action. This volitional regulation calls for the mobilization of effort to overcome obstacles in the pursuit of goals. The present article provides a theoretical and empirical overview of motivation intensity theory ( Brehm & Self, 1989 ) – a conceptual framework that makes clear and testable predictions about effort mobilization in various contexts. First, we present the guiding principles of this theory and its operationalizations by measures of effort-related cardiovascular reactivity and physical handgrip force. Second, we review a selection of empirical tests of the basic assumptions of this theory and the impact of psychological moderator variables such as affect, fatigue, pain, and personality on effort mobilization. Finally, we discuss important implications of these findings for the sports and health domains and make suggestions for future research.

The Impacts of the Presence of an Unfamiliar Dog on Emerging Adults' Physiological and Behavioral Responses Following Social Exclusion

Research indicates that non-human attachment figures may mitigate the negative consequences of social exclusion. In the current experiment, we examined how the presence of an unfamiliar companion dog in the laboratory effects physiological and behavioral reactions in female emerging adults after social exclusion compared to inclusion. Results revealed the beneficial effects of the dog: Socially excluded participants in the company of a dog showed less aggressive behavior in response to the hot sauce paradigm compared to excluded participants in the control condition. Furthermore, cardiac responses indicated mitigated perception of threat in a subsequent insult episode when a dog was present. The presence of a dog did not impact the most instantaneous, "reflexive" response to the social exclusion as revealed by characteristic cardiac changes. Together, the findings indicate that the presence of a companion dog takes effect in a later, reflective period following a social exclusion experience, which implicates relevant social elaboration and appraisal processes.

Type D personality and blunted cardiovascular stress reactivity: Role of task engagement

OBJECTIVE

The underlying mechanisms for linking Type D personality to cardiovascular stress reactivity remain unknown. The present study explored the possible mediating role of cognitive appraisals of stress and/or motivational levels involved in stress in the association between Type D personality and cardiovascular stress reactivity.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional.

METHODS

Chinese version of Type D Scale-14 was administered to 154 undergraduate students who underwent psychosocial stress during which the physiological data were continuously monitored, and cognitive appraisals indexed by a ratio of perceived stress demands to perceived personal resources and motivational levels engaged in stress indexed by self-reported stress task engagement were immediately assessed after the stress exposure.

RESULTS

Results indicated that Type D personality was related to blunted HR, SBP, and DBP reactivity to stress. Self-reported stress task engagement mediated the relation between Type D personality and blunted cardiovascular stress reactivity. The mediation effect of cognitive appraisals on this link was non-significant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that motivational disengagement in the psychosocial stress task might be an important pathway linking Type D personality to blunted cardiovascular stress reactivity.

Vagal Flexibility Mediates the Association Between Resting Vagal Activity and Cognitive Performance Stability Across Varying Socioemotional Demands

Vagal flexibility describes the ability to modulate cardiac vagal responses to fit a dynamic range of challenges. Extant theory on vagal function implies that vagal flexibility is a mediating mechanism through which resting vagal activity, a putative individual difference related to self-regulation, affects adaptive behavior and cognition. Nevertheless, little research has directly tested this hypothesis, thereby leaving fundamental mechanisms of vagal function and adaptability unclear. To this end, 47 healthy subjects completed a 5 min baseline followed by Stroop tasks combined with concurrent auditory distractors. There were four different Stroop task conditions that varied the social and emotional content of the auditory distractors. Electrocardiogram was continuously recorded to assess vagal responses to each condition as heart rate variability [root mean square of successive differences (RMSSDs)] reactivity. Vagal flexibility significantly mediated the association between resting vagal activity and stability of inhibition performance (Stroop interference) scores. In particular, higher resting RMSSD was related to higher standard deviation of RMSSD reactivity scores, reflecting greater differences in RMSSD reactivity between distractor conditions (i.e., greater vagal flexibility). Greater vagal flexibility was in turn related to more stability in Stroop interference across the same conditions. The mean of RMSSD reactivity scores across conditions was not significantly related to resting RMSSD or stability in Stroop performance, and mean RMSSD reactivity did not mediate relations between resting RMSSD and stability in Stroop performance. Overall, findings suggest that vagal flexibility may promote the effects of resting vagal activity on stabilizing cognitive inhibition in the face of environmental perturbations.

A Curvilinear Effect of Mental Workload on Mental Effort and Behavioral Adaptability: An Approach With the Pre-Ejection Period

OBJECTIVE

We tested Hancock and Szalma's mental workload model, which has never been experimentally validated at a global level with the measure of the pre-ejection period (PEP), an index of beta-adrenergic sympathetic impact.

BACKGROUND

Operators adapt to mental workload. When mental workload level increases, behavioral and physiological adaptability intensifies to reduce the decline in performance. However, if the mental workload exceeds an intermediate level, behavioral and physiological adaptability will decrease to protect individuals from excessive perturbations. This decrease is associated with a change in behavioral strategies and disengagement.

METHOD

The experimental task was a modified Fitts' task used in Hancock and Caird. Five levels of task difficulty were computed. Behavioral and physiological adaptability was indexed by the performance with speed-accuracy trade-off and PEP reactivity.

RESULTS

A curvilinear effect of task difficulty on PEP reactivity was significant, with high reactivity at the intermediate level but low reactivity at other levels. We observed a linear effect of task difficulty on error rate and a curvilinear effect on movement time. A decline in performance was noted up to the intermediate level, with a speed-accuracy trade-off above this level showing a faster movement time.

CONCLUSION

We observed for the first time behavioral and physiological adaptability as a function of mental workload.

APPLICATION

The results have important implications for the modeling of mental workload, particularly in the context of the performance-sensitive domain (car driving and air traffic control). They can help guide the design of human-computer interaction to maximize adaptive behavior, that is, the "comfort zone."

The Pathway From Social Status to Physical Health: Taking a Closer Look at Stress as a Mediator

Stress is often invoked as a potential contributor to disparities in physical health as a function of social status. Although there is good reason to believe that stress exposure and stress responses may be an important pathway linking lower social status to poor health, direct evidence is lacking. We summarize the evidence for this pathway and limitations of that evidence, focusing particularly on how stress is conceptualized and measured. We argue that in addition to more direct tests of mediation, the measurement of the mediator—stress—could also be improved. We also propose that measuring theory-specific stress exposures may be more fruitful than assessing general stress exposures (e.g., life events, global perceived stress) by increasing theoretical clarity and predictive utility of stress in this context.

Influencing the physiology and decisions of groups: Physiological linkage during group decision-making

Many of the most important decisions in our society are made within groups, yet we know little about how the physiological responses of group members predict the decisions that groups make. In the current work, we examine whether physiological linkage from “senders” to “receivers”—which occurs when a sender’s physiological response predicts a receiver’s physiological response—is associated with senders’ success at persuading the group to make a decision in their favor. We also examine whether experimentally manipulated status—an important predictor of social behavior—is associated with physiological linkage. In groups of 5, we randomly assigned 1 person to be high status, 1 low status, and 3 middle status. Groups completed a collaborative decision-making task that required them to come to a consensus on a decision to hire 1 of 5 firms. Unbeknownst to the 3 middle-status members, high- and low-status members surreptitiously were told to each argue for different firms. We measured cardiac interbeat intervals of all group members throughout the decision-making process to assess physiological linkage. We found that the more receivers were physiologically linked to senders, the more likely groups were to make a decision in favor of the senders. We did not find that people were physiologically linked to their group members as a function of their fellow group members’ status. This work identifies physiological linkage as a novel correlate of persuasion and highlights the need to understand the relationship between group members’ physiological responses during group decision-making.

Autonomic nervous system functioning in early childhood: Responses to cognitive and negatively valenced emotional challenges

Although autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning is "context-dependent," few studies examined children's normative sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic responses to distinct challenges in early childhood years. Examining children's ANS responsivity to distinct challenges is important for understanding normative autonomic responses toward everyday life stressors and identifying paradigms that effectively elicit a "stress response." We examined children's (N = 278) sympathetic (preejection period [PEP]) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) responses to cognitive (i.e., problem-solving and cognitive control) and negatively valenced emotional (i.e., blocked goal and unfairness) challenges in preschool, kindergarten, and grade 1. Children, on average, demonstrated parasympathetic inhibition (RSA withdrawal) in response to all challenges but the magnitude of these responses depended on the task. Children showed sympathetic activation (PEP shortening) toward the problem-solving task at each assessment and there was no sample-level change in the magnitude of this response over time. Children showed greater sympathetic responsivity toward the cognitive control task over time, with evidence for a sympathetic activation response only in grade 1. Children experienced sympathetic inhibition (PEP lengthening) toward the unfairness tasks but did not experience significant sympathetic responsivity toward the blocked goal tasks. Parasympathetic responsivity to most challenges were modestly stable but there was no stability in sympathetic responsivity across time.

Listening effort: Are we measuring cognition or affect, or both?

Listening effort is increasingly recognized as a factor in communication, particularly for and with nonnative speakers, for the elderly, for individuals with hearing impairment and/or for those working in noise. However, as highlighted by McGarrigle et al., International Journal of Audiology, 2014, 53, 433-445, the term "listening effort" encompasses a wide variety of concepts, including the engagement and control of multiple possibly distinct neural systems for information processing, and the affective response to the expenditure of those resources in a given context. Thus, experimental or clinical methods intended to objectively quantify listening effort may ultimately reflect a complex interaction between the operations of one or more of those information processing systems, and/or the affective and motivational response to the demand on those systems. Here we examine theoretical, behavioral, and psychophysiological factors related to resolving the question of what we are measuring, and why, when we measure "listening effort." This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Theory and Methods Psychology > Attention Psychology > Emotion and Motivation.

Affect and cognitive control: Insights from research on effort mobilization

We present theory and research on effort mobilization that is relevant for understanding the role of affect in cognitive control. We posit that cognitive control and effort are closely related and introduce motivational intensity theory and supporting empirical evidence mainly based on cardiovascular measures of effort. Most important, we discuss the role of affect in the context of effort mobilization and cognitive control from different perspectives. We first present theories predicting affective influences on effort, namely the mood-behavior-model and the implicit-affect-primes-effort model, and supporting empirical evidence. Second, we discuss further implications of the resource conservation principle highlighting the aversive aspect of effort and review evidence for the impact of value and its affective component on effort and cognitive control. Finally, we present a recent integration of the neural mechanisms underlying both effort and cognitive control. We conclude that affective processes are necessary and instrumental for both effort mobilization and cognitive control.

Motivation and social-cognitive abilities in older adults: Convergent evidence from self-report measures and cardiovascular reactivity

Recently, some authors have suggested that age-related impairments in social-cognitive abilities-emotion recognition (ER) and theory of mind (ToM)-may be explained in terms of reduced motivation and effort mobilization in older adults. We examined performance on ER and ToM tasks, as well as corresponding control tasks, experimentally manipulating self-involvement. Sixty-one older adults and 57 young adults were randomly assigned to either a High or Low self-involvement condition. In the first condition, self-involvement was raised by telling participants were told that good task performance was associated with a number of positive, personally relevant social outcomes. Motivation was measured with both subjective (self-report questionnaire) and objective (systolic blood pressure reactivity-SBP-R) indices. Results showed that the self-involvement manipulation did not increase self-reported motivation, SBP-R, or task performance. Further correlation analyses focusing on individual differences in motivation did not reveal any association with performance, in either young or older adults. Notably, we found age-related decline in both ER and ToM, despite older adults having higher motivation than young adults. Overall, the present results were not consistent with previous claims that motivation affects older adults' social-cognitive performance, opening the route to potential alternative explanations.

Circadian mismatch and cardiovascular response to a performance challenge: Larks in morning and evening work sessions

We presented morning chronotype ("Lark") university undergraduate volunteers a more or less difficult Sternberg-type recognition memory task either in the morning (8-11 am) or in the evening (5-8 pm) with instructions that they could win a prize if they were 85% successful. We established morning chronotype using the Composite Scale for Morningness (Smith et al., 1989), employing a tertile split on a pool of scale scores that ranged from 13 (extreme eveningness) to 55 (extreme morningness). Participants had scores above 37, with most participants identifying as White/Caucasian, Hispanic/Latino, or Black/African-American. Among women (final sample n = 81), systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure responses assessed during work formed a crossover pattern, being positively correspondent to difficulty in the morning but negatively correspondent to difficulty in the evening. Heart rate and heart pre-ejection period responses ran parallel in the morning but not the evening. Among men (final sample n = 41), cardiovascular responses differed neither with difficulty nor with time. Findings for women support the extension of a recent analysis of fatigue influence on effort and associated cardiovascular responses to the phenomenon of circadian mismatch. Findings for men do not support the extension but should be interpreted guardedly in light of prohibitively low cell ns and unexpected findings on key subjective measures.

Outsiders’ Thoughts on Generating Self-Regulatory-Depletion (Fatigue) Effects in Limited-Resource Experiments

We offer thoughts pertaining to purported conceptual and replication crises that have been discussed in relation to the limited-resource model (LRM) of self-control, functioning as crisis outsiders who have been conducting related research concerned with determinants and cardiovascular correlates of effort. Guiding analyses in our laboratory convey important lessons about experimental generation of the now-classic LRM self-regulatory-fatigue effect on control. They do so by drawing attention to conditions that must be met in fatigue-induction and fatigue-influence phases of relevant experiments. One fundamental lesson is that even highly standardized fatigue-induction protocols cannot be expected to consistently allow definitive tests of this effect. Another is that the effect might emerge consistently only in a behavioral-restraint “sweet spot” of sorts—a multidimensional motivational space wherein rested study participants view restraint as possible and worthwhile and fatigued participants do not. Implications are identified and discussed.

Aging, effort, and stereotyping: The evidence for the moderating role of self-involvement

A study with young and older adults (N = 91) investigated the effect of self-involvement on stereotyping tendency and effort mobilization. We hypothesized that the impact of self-involvement varies as a function of age: increased self-involvement should lead older adults to engage in more effortful information processing and decreased stereotyping, whereas increased self-involvement should have no impact on effort mobilization and stereotyping tendency in young adults. Young and older adults read narratives under low and high-self-involvement conditions before performing a recognition test that measured their stereotyping tendency. Effort was assessed as cardiovascular responses. We found that older adults in the high-self-involvement condition presented low stereotyping tendency (similar to that of young people) in comparison to older adults in the low-self-involvement condition. Furthermore, older adults in the high-self-involvement condition had decreased high-frequency heart rate variability in comparison to the other conditions, but only during the recognition test; this suggests increased effort mobilization. These findings indicate that self-involvement decreases older adults' stereotyping tendency, possibly through effort mobilization.

Social support as a comfort or an encouragement: A systematic review on the contrasting effects of social support on cardiovascular reactivity

PURPOSE

The stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, 1984, Handbook of psychology and health IV: Social psychological aspects of health (pp. 253-256). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) suggests that one way social support enhances health is by attenuating cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress. Research that has tested this hypothesis has reported inconsistent findings. In this review, we systematically reviewed those findings and proposed a dual-effect model of social support and CVR as a potential explanation for the inconsistency in the literature. Specifically, we proposed that when participants are more engaged during a stressor, social support acts primarily as social comfort, attenuating CVR; and when participants are not engaged, social support acts primarily as social encouragement, elevating CVR.

METHODS

We reviewed 22 previous studies that (1) empirically manipulated social support in a stressful situation, (2) measured CVR, and (3) tested a moderator of social support effects on CVR.

RESULTS

Although a majority of studies reported a CVR-mitigating effect of social support resulting in an overall significant combined p-value, we found that there were different effects of social support on CVR when we considered high- and low-engagement contexts. That is, compared to control conditions, social support lowered CVR in more engaging situations but had no significant effect on CVR in less engaging situations.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that a dual-effect model of social support effects on CVR may better capture the nature of social support, CVR, and health associations than the buffering hypothesis and emphasize a need to better understand the health implications of physiological reactivity in various contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? According to the stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, ), one pathway social support benefits health is through mitigating the physiological arousal caused by stress. However, previous studies that examined the effects of social support on blood pressure and heart rate changes were not consistently supporting the hypothesis. Some studies reported that social support causes elevations in cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress (Anthony & O'Brien, ; Hilmert, Christenfeld, & Kulik, ; Hilmert, Kulik, & Christenfeld, ) and others showed no effect of social support on CVR (Christian & Stoney, ; Craig & Deichert, ; Gallo, Smith, & Kircher, ). What does this study add? When participants were in more engaging conditions, social support decreased CVR relative to no support. When participants were in less engaging conditions, social support did not have a significant effect on CVR. Provide an alternative way to explain the ways social support affects cardiac health.

Prime visibility moderates implicit anger and sadness effects on effort-related cardiac response

Based on the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort (IAPE) model (Gendolla, 2012, 2015), an experiment investigated the effect of affect primes' visibility on effort mobilization during cognitive processing. Participants worked on a short-term memory task with integrated sadness vs. anger primes that were presented suboptimally (briefly and masked) vs. optimally (long and visible). Effort was assessed as cardiovascular response, especially cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). To monitor performance, we assessed response accuracy and reaction times. In accordance with the IAPE model, PEP reactivity was stronger in the sadness-prime condition than in the anger-prime condition-but only when the primes were suboptimally presented. Effects on response accuracy revealed a corresponding pattern. The results suggest that prime visibility is a boundary condition of anger and sadness primes' effect on effort mobilization.

More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science

Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processes alone have been labeled as "stress." Stress science would be further advanced if researchers adopted a common conceptual model that incorporates epidemiological, affective, and psychophysiological perspectives, with more precise language for describing stress measures. We articulate an integrative working model, highlighting how stressor exposures across the life course influence habitual responding and stress reactivity, and how health behaviors interact with stress. We offer a Stress Typology articulating timescales for stress measurement - acute, event-based, daily, and chronic - and more precise language for dimensions of stress measurement.

Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Responses to Standardized Stressors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Disparities in cardiovascular health by socioeconomic status (SES) are a pressing public health concern. Hypothesized mechanisms linking low SES to poor health are large cardiovascular responses to and delayed recovery from psychological stress. The current study presents a meta-analysis of the literature on the association of SES with blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to and recovery from acute stress tasks.

METHODS

The PubMed database was searched, and 26 unique studies with relevant data were identified (k = 25 reactivity [n = 14,617], k = 6 recovery [n = 1,324]).

RESULTS

Using random-effects models, no significant association between SES and cardiovascular reactivity to stress emerged (r = .008, 95% confidence interval = -.02 to .04), although higher SES was associated with better recovery from stress (r = -.14, 95% confidence interval -.23 to -.05). Stressor type moderated the reactivity effect, wherein higher SES was associated with greater reactivity to cognitive stressors (r = .036, p = .024), not with reactivity to interpersonal stressors (r = -.02, p = .62), but was associated with lower reactivity to tasks with combinations of cognitive, interpersonal, and physical challenges (r = -.12, p = .029). Accounting for publication bias revealed a significant association between SES and reactivity in the opposite direction of hypotheses.

CONCLUSIONS

Cardiovascular recovery from acute stress, but not reactivity to stress, may be a key pathway between low SES and risk for cardiovascular diseases. Heterogeneity in effect size and direction, challenges related to working across temporal dynamics, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Quantifying rapid changes in cardiovascular state with a moving ensemble average

MEAP, the moving ensemble analysis pipeline, is a new open-source tool designed to perform multisubject preprocessing and analysis of cardiovascular data, including electrocardiogram (ECG), impedance cardiogram (ICG), and continuous blood pressure (BP). In addition to traditional ensemble averaging, MEAP implements a moving ensemble averaging method that allows for the continuous estimation of indices related to cardiovascular state, including cardiac output, preejection period, heart rate variability, and total peripheral resistance, among others. Here, we define the moving ensemble technique mathematically, highlighting its differences from fixed-window ensemble averaging. We describe MEAP's interface and features for signal processing, artifact correction, and cardiovascular-based fMRI analysis. We demonstrate the accuracy of MEAP's novel B point detection algorithm on a large collection of hand-labeled ICG waveforms. As a proof of concept, two subjects completed a series of four physical and cognitive tasks (cold pressor, Valsalva maneuver, video game, random dot kinetogram) on 3 separate days while ECG, ICG, and BP were recorded. Critically, the moving ensemble method reliably captures the rapid cyclical cardiovascular changes related to the baroreflex during the Valsalva maneuver and the classic cold pressor response. Cardiovascular measures were seen to vary considerably within repetitions of the same cognitive task for each individual, suggesting that a carefully designed paradigm could be used to capture fast-acting event-related changes in cardiovascular state.

Understanding Mixed Emotions: Paradigms and Measures

In this review, we examine the paradigms and measures available for experimentally studying mixed emotions in the laboratory. For eliciting mixed emotions, we describe a mixed emotions film library that allows for the repeated elicitation of a specific homogeneous mixed emotional state and appropriately matched pure positive, pure negative, and neutral emotional states. For assessing mixed emotions, we consider subjective and objective measures that fall into univariate, bivariate, and multivariate measurement categories. As paradigms and measures for objectively studying mixed emotions are still in their early stages, we conclude by outlining future directions that focus on the reliability, temporal dynamics, and response coherence of mixed emotions paradigms and measures. This research will build a strong foundation for future studies and significantly advance our understanding of mixed emotions.

Effects of coping flexibility on cardiovascular reactivity to task difficulty

OBJECTIVE

Coping flexibility refers to an individual's ability to effectively modify his or her coping behavior to better fit the nature of each stressful situation they encounter. More flexible coping is believed to produce more adaptive psychological functioning and physical health.

METHODS

We examined the relationship between coping flexibility and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to psychological stress. Challenging tasks of two difficulty levels were presented to 24 men and 24 women aged 18 to 24years. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure were measured.

RESULTS

Change scores (from baseline to reactivity) for SBP and HR responses in the difficult task were higher than those in the easy task and were negatively correlated with coping flexibility during the difficult task but not the easy one.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that more flexible coping is associated with reduced CVR to a difficult task.

Implicit activation of the aging stereotype influences effort-related cardiovascular response: The role of incentive

Based on previous research on implicit effects on effort-related cardiovascular response and evidence that aging is associated with cognitive difficulties, we tested whether the mere activation of the aging stereotype can systematically influence young individuals' effort-mobilization during cognitive performance. Young participants performed an objectively difficult short-term memory task during which they processed elderly vs. youth primes and expected low vs. high incentive for success. When participants processed elderly primes during the task, we expected cardiovascular response to be weak in the low-incentive condition and strong in the high-incentive condition. Unaffected by incentive, effort in the youth-prime condition should fall in between the two elderly-prime cells. Effects on cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and heart rate (HR) largely supported these predictions. The present findings show for the first time that the mere activation of the aging stereotype can systematically influence effort mobilization during cognitive performance-even in young adults.

On Integrating the Components of Self-Control

As the science of self-control matures, the organization and integration of its key concepts becomes increasingly important. In response, we identified seven major components or "nodes" in current theories and research bearing on self-control: desire, higher order goal, desire-goal conflict, control motivation, control capacity, control effort, and enactment constraints. To unify these diverse and interdisciplinary areas of research, we formulated the interplay of these components in an integrative model of self-control. In this model, desire and an at least partly incompatible higher order goal generate desire-goal conflict, which activates control motivation. Control motivation and control capacity interactively determine potential control effort. The actual control effort invested is determined by several moderators, including desire strength, perceived skill, and competing goals. Actual control effort and desire strength compete to determine a prevailing force, which ultimately determines behavior, provided that enactment constraints do not impede it. The proposed theoretical framework is useful for highlighting several new directions for research on self-control and for classifying self-control failures and self-control interventions.