Ultra-brief training in cognitive reappraisal or mindfulness reduces anxiety and improves motor performance efficiency under stress.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We examined the effects of ultra-brief training in mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal on affective response and performance under stress. We hypothesized that one or both types of training would decrease affective responding and improve performance, and that these effects might be moderated by acute stress induction. DESIGN: We manipulated training (mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, control) between subjects and level of stress (low, high) within subjects in a 3 × 2 mixed factorial design. Method: Participants (N = 112, ages 18-35) completed two sessions on different days. In each session, they received mindfulness or cognitive reappraisal training or listened to a control script prior to a low- or high-stress simulated hostage situation. We measured motor performance efficiency (proportion of shots that hit hostile and hostage targets), affective responding (self-reported anxiety, salivary cortisol and alpha amylase, and autonomic physiology), and physical activity. RESULTS: Compared to control instructions, ultra-brief training in cognitive reappraisal or mindfulness reduced subjective anxiety and increased performance efficiency. There were few effects of training on other measures. CONCLUSION: Ultra-brief training in cognitive reappraisal or mindfulness prior to a stressful task may be both helpful and harmful; effects are preliminary and subject to boundary conditions.

Different profiles of decision making and physiology under varying levels of stress in trained military personnel.

Decision making is one of the most vital processes we use every day, ranging from mundane decisions about what to eat to life-threatening choices such as how to avoid a car collision. Thus, the context in which our decisions are made is critical, and our physiology enables adaptive responses that account for how environmental stress influences our performance. The relationship between stress and decision making can additionally be affected by one's expertise in making decisions in high-threat environments, where experts can develop an adaptive response that mitigates the negative impacts of stress. In the present study, 26 male military personnel made friend/foe discriminations in an environment where we manipulated the level of stress. In the high-stress condition, participants received a shock when they incorrectly shot a friend or missed shooting a foe; in the low-stress condition, participants received a vibration for an incorrect decision. We characterized performance using signal detection theory to investigate whether a participant changed their decision criterion to avoid making an error. Results showed that under high-stress, participants made more false alarms, mistaking friends as foes, and this co-occurred with increased high frequency heart rate variability. Finally, we examined the relationship between decision making and physiology, and found that participants exhibited adaptive behavioral and physiological profiles under different stress levels. We interpret this adaptive profile as a marker of an expert's ingrained training that does not require top down control, suggesting a way that expert training in high-stress environments helps to buffer negative impacts of stress on performance.