Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: The present study extended previous research (James, Schmank, Castro, Hendricks, & Buchanan, 2016) that indicated high-stress testing conditions (i.e., evaluative observation while performing challenging tasks) caused increases in tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) compared to low-stress testing conditions. In the current study, young (ages 18-29), middle-aged (ages 30-60), and older adult (ages 61-80 participants were randomly assigned to a high- or low-stress testing condition. Stress was manipulated using the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST; Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993) in the high-stress condition and a placebo-TSST (Het, Rohleder, Schoofs, Kirschbaum, & Wolf, 2009) in the low-stress condition. Following the TSST or placebo-TSST components, participants completed a naming task by providing the full name of a presented famous face (name stimuli) or an English word (non-name stimuli), indicating any TOTs they experienced. For all age groups, participants in the high-stress condition had more TOTs than those in the low-stress condition, using various calculations of TOT rate. There were no main effects of age group, nor did age group ever interact with stress condition. Results indicate that concurrent, psychosocial stress impairs word retrieval irrespective of participant age. Our prediction concerning stress generating transmission deficits leading to increased TOT experiences was supported. Our findings did not support the prediction that TOT experiences would increase with age. Critically, our results indicate that stress did impact TOT rate, but contrary to our prediction, this impact was same across each age group in the current study.
Author: Christopher J. Schmank
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2582718951