Effects of stressors on cognitive task performance have primarily been studied in isolation, and little is known about the combined effects of two or more stressors. This study examined how a metabolic stressor (skipping breakfast) and a sensory stressor (noise) affect cognitive task performance in isolation and combined. In addition to performance, we collected physiological and subjective data to get insight in the underlying mechanisms. Twenty participants came to the lab twice, once after skipping breakfast, and once after a standardized breakfast. They performed runs of the 2-back task and the International Shopping List Task, which were alternately presented with and without noise. During the 2-back task, electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded. Subjective ratings on effort and stress were also collected. No interaction effects between the two stressors on cognitive performance were found. Skipping breakfast did not cause hypoglycemia, but resulted in subjective discomfort and a lower state of arousal (as indicated by lower heart rate and EDA). These may underly the trend for more missed responses on the 2-back task after breakfast skipping. Noise appeared to generate arousal and increased attention (reflected in higher EDA and P300) in accordance with higher experienced load and stress. This is consistent with less missed 2-back responses in noise conditions. The results indicate that individuals spent extra effort to maintain task performance in the presence of noise. We propose to use a model that, besides additional effort, takes the effect of stressors on performance into account.

中文翻译：

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在代谢和感觉压力源的（组合）条件下的认知任务表现

压力源对认知任务表现的影响主要是单独研究的，对两个或多个压力源的综合影响知之甚少。这项研究检查了代谢压力源（不吃早餐）和感觉压力源（噪音）如何单独和组合影响认知任务的表现。除了性能之外，我们还收集了生理和主观数据以深入了解潜在机制。20 名参与者两次来到实验室，一次是在不吃早餐之后，一次是在标准早餐之后。他们执行了 2-back 任务和国际购物清单任务，这两个任务交替出现，有噪音和没有噪音。在 2-back 任务中，记录了心电图 (ECG)、皮肤电活动 (EDA) 和脑电图 (EEG)。还收集了对努力和压力的主观评价。没有发现两种压力因素对认知表现的相互作用影响。不吃早餐不会导致低血糖，但会导致主观不适和较低的唤醒状态（如较低的心率和 EDA 所示）。这些可能是在不吃早餐后对 2-back 任务更多错过反应的趋势的基础。根据更高的承受负荷和压力，噪音似乎会引起唤醒和增加注意力（反映在更高的 EDA 和 P300 中）。这与在噪声条件下较少错过的 2-back 响应是一致的。结果表明，在存在噪音的情况下，个人花费了额外的努力来保持任务绩效。我们建议使用一个模型，除了额外的努力外，还考虑了压力源对绩效的影响。