Biological Stress Reactivity and Introspective Sensitivity: An Exploratory Study
Date
2020
Type:
Article
item.page.extent
9 p.
item.page.accessRights
item.contributor.advisor
ORCID:
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
item.page.isbn
item.page.issn
item.page.issne
item.page.doiurl
item.page.other
item.page.references
Abstract
Reaction to stressful events has an impact on several cognitive processes. High levels of stress can be detrimental to working memory, attention and decision-making. Here, we investigated whether individuals’ reactivity to stress is related to their introspective
sensitivity (i.e., how well individuals monitor their own cognitive processes). To this aim,
27 participants (16 women, mean 20 years old) were exposed to a psychosocial stress
protocol (trier social stress test, TSST), where individuals were asked to simulate a job
interview and perform arithmetic calculations in front of a panel of experts. The salivary
cortisol concentration, which is considered a hormonal index of stress reactivity, was
collected during the TSST through the enzyme immunoassay DRG cortisol ELISA kit.
Based on literature recommendations, we classified participants as responders and
non-responders to the TSST. In a second session, through a visual search paradigm,
we evaluated the introspective sensitivity of the participants. We evaluated how these
individuals (i) monitor their own performance (through a confidence estimation), (ii)
monitor their own attentional shifts (through a subjective number of scanned items
estimation, SNSI), and (iii) monitor their own response times (through an introspective
response time estimation, iRT). We found that individuals with lower biological reactivity
to stress are more accurate in estimating their SNSI (p = 0.033) and iRT (p = 0.002),
and in evaluating their own performance (p = 0.038) through their confidence. We argue
that the effect of stress on introspection is not limited to a particular type of introspective
evaluation, but rather consists of a general alteration of the introspective mechanism.
Description
item.page.coverage.spatial
item.page.sponsorship
Citation
Barrientos M, Tapia L, Silva JR and Reyes G (2020) Biological Stress
Reactivity and Introspective Sensitivity: An Exploratory Study.
Front. Psychol. 11:543. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00543
Keywords
Introspection, TSST, Consciousness, Cortisol, Biological stress reactivity