Stress Appraisals on Cognitive Performance

The study examined the effect of stress appraisals on cognitive performance among undergraduate students. The experiment involved a between-group, quasi-experiment design where participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or one of two experimental groups (threat or challenge). Participants completed a 5-minute timed word search puzzle and then provided informed written consent before being fully debriefed. The results showed significant differences in stress appraisals on cognitive performance, with the control group scoring higher than both threat and challenge groups. The findings support the notion that stress appraisals are highly related constructs associated with performance satisfaction.

Part 1: Conference-Style Abstract
Title: The effect of stress appraisals on cognitive performance
Objective: To examine the transactional model of stress effect and cognitive appraisal
based on the task among UG student.
Design: A between-group, quasi experiment design
Method: It was ethical approval and granted from the University’s health and life science
(HLS) by the faculty’s of human research ethics committee.Participants were invited to
take part in the experiment as a part of a research practical linked to their Psychology
course. At the beginning the experiment, participant were instructed to read the
participant information letter, if they hadn’t done so already, detailing the nature and
requirement of the study. However after providing informed written consent, participant
were presented and asked to carefully read a set of experimental instruction prior to
complete a 5 minute timed of word search puzzle. Finally, all participant were fully
debriefed.
· Ethical approval was granted from the University’s health and life sciences (HLS)
faculty’s human research ethics committee.
· Participants were invited to take part in the experiment as part of a research practical
linked to their Psychology course.
· At the beginning the experiment, participants were instructed to read the participant
information letter, if they hadn’t done so already, detailing the nature and requirements of
the study.
· After providing informed written consent, participants were presented and asked to
carefully read a set of experimental instructions prior to completing a 5 minute timed
word search puzzle.
a. Each workshop was allocated to a different condition (challenge, threat and
control)
· Following the experiment, a manipulation check was administered to verify that the
manipulation of the independent variable had its intended effect on the participants.
· Finally, all participants were fully debriefed.
Results: An independent one-way ANOVA found that significant differences emerged in
the stress appraisal on cognitive performances (F (2,202) = 127.06, p < .001). Post-hoc
comparisons using the Turkey HSD test indicated that those in control group (M = 8.07;
SD=2.47) scored significantly (p<0.01)higher on the BDI than those in both the threat
(M = 8.49; SD=2.40) and challenge groups (M = 14.41; SD=2.91). However, the BDI
scores of participants within the threat and challenge groups did not differ significantly
(p>.05).

Conclusion:Our findings support the notion that stress appraisals are highly related
constructs that are also associated with performance satisfaction.