ABSTRACT
Effects on several component processes of human performance due to the action of mild noise-induced stress are outlined. These include changes in attentional disposition, information transformation rate, primary memory capacity, and response bias in a choice task. It is shown that performance of a complex multicomponent skill, here called closed-system thinking, is affected by noise in directions predictable from a knowledge of the stressor’s effects on individual components. On the basis of these, and relevant physiological data we argue that changes in state due to stressors are more realistically seen as vector rather than scalar quantities, having “direction” as well as magnitude. Such an assumption involves activation processes quite intimately in the ongoing control of cognitive operations. A conceptual model of the control hierarchy is presented, incorporating a “state selection” operation based on short-term processing goals, and a “state acquisition” operation based on operant control of an “executive” response. Data bearing on the model are presented and discussed.
