Writing down worries boosts performance

[Charles Pegge]

Previous work by the same researchers showed that high pressure situations can deplete part of the brain's processing power known as working memory.

Working memory is a sort of mental scratch pad that allows people to retrieve and use information relevant to the task at hand.

But when worries mount up, the working memory people normally use to succeed can become overburdened. This can sap the brain power necessary to excel.


http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/writing-about-stress-boosts-performance.htm

[danbaron]

I think that up to a certain point, pressure can increase performance. That point varies from person to person. As the pressure increases beyond that point, performance decreases.

Computer programming is an example. There have been times when because of me being stressed due to health problems in my family, I have spent hours of frustration trying to find the simplest errors in my code. Another thing which I often do when I am overstressed, is to lose my keys inside my house. If I am obsessing about a problem and carrying my keys at the same time, then, I unconsciously put them down in a strange location, making finding them an exercise in extreme frustration. I think that at some point, everyone becomes, "unglued". After that, the irrational subconscious mind overpowers the rational conscious mind, and, misery ensues.

The article is interesting. It is also interesting that academics can devise, perform, and publish a paper about a simple experiment (20 students given two short math tests), the results of which are a priori self-evident to most people, and be taken seriously by other academics, and by the general public. (Is 20 students enough to be statistically significant?)

I guess the only part that was not completely obvious, was the performance increase for those who wrote down their feelings prior to the second test. But, everyone knows that, "venting", usually verbally, reduces emotional pressure. It probably is not too much of a surprise, that written venting functions similarly. The researchers must have also realized this beforehand, otherwise, why did they have half of the students write down their feelings?

Here is the last part of the article.

The professor said the technique may also help with other high pressure situations. "We think this type of writing will help people perform their best in variety of pressure-filled situations - whether it is a big presentation to a client, a speech to an audience or even a job interview," she added.

This reminds me of what the lead NASA researcher said about finding the Mono Lake bacteria which had adapted to use arsenic in its DNA (is that known for certain?), in the arsenic rich lake. She also indicated that her work was very significant.

I guess we should not expect that these people will say that they had to publish something, and this was all they could come up with.

(I like when articles like this are posted here. I try to post similar articles when I see them. But sometimes the most interesting part for me, is analyzing the researchers, and not their research. All of it is only my opinion, maybe I am just envious.)

Dan

[kryton9]

Dan, I think this type of research at times seems as you say... I just wish there was a database where all this info could be easily accessed. Then even small, what seem trivial results could be interesting if easily searched and cross referenced with other data. I am sure interesting new useful things would pop up.

[Petr Schreiber]

Kent,

we had such a database of scientific resources from around the world on one place at university. Sadly, it is accessible only to students, which I am not anymore.

But maybe it could be just matter of new agreement with school.


Petr

[kryton9]

I am happy to hear that Petr, thanks for letting me know.

[Petr Schreiber]

It was international database, not some Czech project, so I am sure if you visit any university nearby, you can dive into it.

I think for non students it costs some amount of money, but the amount of information stored there was very large. I will try to visit uni and learn how it is named...


Petr