EAPSI: Stress Appraisal and Working Memory Function

EAPSI：压力评估和工作记忆功能

• 批准号: 1515564
• 负责人: Nancy Tsai
• 金额: $ 0.51万
• 依托单位: Tsai Nancy
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1515564&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Stress; Appraisal; Working; Memory

Working memory, a critical cognitive function, is a strong predictor of academic, professional, and overall life achievement. Individuals differ greatly in their working memory abilities and such variation could be due to conditions that tax the working memory system, such as stress. Research examining the influence of stress on cognition through the presentation of negative feedback, however, has yielded conflicting results. With the help of Dr. Qiong Zhang at Zhejiang University, the current proposal examines how individual differences such as appraisal of negative feedback mediate the relationship between stress and working memory function. The project examines how one?s appraisal of feedback influences their performance. Individual differences in response to feedback could be rooted in the stress perception. Fundamental to the perspective of psychological stress is the perception and evaluation of potential harm posed by the stressor. Thus, psychological stress is solely determined by the persons? interpretations of the situation and not by objective appraisal of the environmental experiences. In the proposed study, subjects will be assigned to one of two conditions where they will be given positive or negative fictitious feedback on the working memory task irrespective of their actual performance. The influences of this feedback on working memory performance will be examined by assessing individual variables that may predict whether a stressor is perceived as a threat or a challenge. Amongst others, one such variable could be cultural background as previous research has indicated differences between East Asian and Western cultures in response to feedback. This NSF EAPSI award supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

工作记忆是一种重要的认知功能，对学业成就、职业成就和整体人生成就具有很强的预测力。每个人的工作记忆能力差异很大，这种差异可能是由于压力等加重工作记忆系统负担的条件造成的。然而，通过呈现负面反馈来考察压力对认知的影响的研究却得出了相互矛盾的结果。在浙江大学张琼博士的帮助下，目前的研究项目研究了负面反馈评估等个体差异如何在压力和工作记忆功能之间的关系中起到调节作用。该项目考察了S对反馈的评价如何影响他们的表现。个体对反馈的反应差异可能根植于压力感知。从心理压力的角度来看，基础是对应激源造成的潜在伤害的感知和评估。因此，心理压力完全是由人决定的？对情况的解读，而不是对环境经验的客观评价。在这项拟议的研究中，受试者将被分配到两种情况中的一种，无论他们的实际表现如何，他们都会得到关于工作记忆任务的积极或消极的虚构反馈。这种反馈对工作记忆表现的影响将通过评估个别变量来检验，这些变量可能预测应激源是被视为威胁还是挑战。其中，一个这样的变量可能是文化背景，因为之前的研究表明，东亚和西方文化对反馈的反应存在差异。该NSF EAPSI奖支持一名美国研究生的研究，并与中国科技部合作提供资金。