Stress May Impair Decision-Making | Psych Central News

Stress May Impair Decision-Making Psych Central News

Stress May Impair Decision-Making
By Rick Nauert, Ph.D. Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 21, 2008

Excerpts:

Although the premise seems intuitive, new research proves that a little bit of stress goes a long way and can have far-reaching effects. Neuroscientists from the University of Washington (UW) have found that a single exposure to uncontrollable stress impairs decision-making in rats for several days, making them unable to reliably seek out the larger of two rewards.

Lauren Jones, a psychology doctoral student working with Jeansok Kim, a UW associate professor of psychology, found that stressed rats took significantly longer to respond to a change in rewards given to them in a maze and their performances never matched those of other rats not exposed to stress.

Stress is known to contribute to a number of psychopathologies in humans including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and drug-use relapse.

Neuroscientists also know that stress affects cognition, and believe research exploring how it relates to learning, memory and decision making will help them understand potential problems stressed people experience in their daily lives.

“The stressed animals took longer to learn and weren’t adjusting their behavior in the maze,” said Jones. “From this research we can see the effects of stress on rats and how one episode of stress impairs their decision making for several days.

“We know humans have to make numerous higher-level decisions, some of which are complex and require deliberations. Rats are guided by survival, and seeking out the larger of two rewards for the same effort should be fundamentally easy. The fact that stress can have such an effect on a simple but critical task is amazing.”

Kim added: “Decision making, both large and small, is part of our lives. People are prone to make mistakes under stress.

Read full article: http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/21/stress-may-impair-decision-making/3390.html

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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.