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Acute Stress Shapes Creative Cognition in Trait Anxiety
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Acute Stress Shapes Creative Cognition in Trait Anxiety

Haijun Duan, Xuewei Wang, Zijuan Wang, Wenlong Xue, Yuecui Kan, Weiping Hu and Fengqing Zhang
Frontiers in psychology, v 10, pp 1517-1517
08 Aug 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01517
PMID: 31440176
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01517View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

acute stress alternative uses test creative cognition Psychology remote associates test Trier social stress test
This study examined the cognitive mechanism underlying acute stress in creative cognition among individuals with high and low trait anxiety. Specifically, cognitive inhibition was assessed using the flanker task during acute stress. Fifty-two participants (26 with high trait anxiety, 26 with low trait anxiety, with a mean age of 18.94 years) underwent stress induction via the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). They all completed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Remote Associates Test (RAT) before and after the TSST. Biochemical markers (salivary cortisol and salivary alpha amylase) were recorded at regular intervals. The results showed that cognitive inhibition was influenced by trait anxiety and acute stress. In low-trait anxious individuals after experiencing acute stress, there was a lack of cognitive inhibition and they performed better in AUT (fluency), compared to before experiencing acute stress, whereas high-trait anxious individuals showed a decreased interference effect and reduced performance in AUT (fluency, flexibility, and originality). In the RAT, there were shorter response times and increased accuracy after acute stress in both high- and low-trait anxiety groups. Thus, we suggest that cognitive control, which modulates changes in acute stress, influences creative cognition. These findings provide evidence that inhibition control mediates the effect of stress on the creativity of individuals with different trait anxiety.

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14 citations in Web of Science
15 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
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