Table 1.
Subjective and Cortisol Responses of Informed and Uninformed Participants to the Stress and Control Manipulations
| Variable | Stress manipulation | Control manipulation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uninformed participants | Informed participants | Uninformed participants | Informed participants | |||||
| M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | |
| Stressfulness | 7.17** | 2.60 | 7.92** | 2.28 | 3.61 | 2.19 | 3.39 | 1.85 |
| Unpleasantness | 8.25** | 2.56 | 7.75** | 2.45 | 3.35 | 1.80 | 3.09 | 2.07 |
| Difficulty | 8.08** | 2.13 | 8.21** | 1.74 | 2.87 | 1.39 | 3.35 | 2.29 |
| Good vs. bad mood | ||||||||
| Before manipulation | 34.50 | 4.38 | 35.42 | 3.15 | 34.70 | 3.27 | 33.83 | 5.37 |
| After manipulation | 26.83** | 9.06 | 27.29** | 6.56 | 34.09 | 4.38 | 32.43 | 5.34 |
| Calmness vs. restlessness | ||||||||
| Before manipulation | 32.54 | 5.96 | 34.58 | 3.69 | 33.04 | 4.42 | 33.30 | 4.90 |
| After manipulation | 25.50* | 9.08 | 23.96** | 6.97 | 30.78 | 5.79 | 32.09 | 5.38 |
| Alertness vs. tiredness | ||||||||
| Before manipulation | 28.46 | 6.26 | 30.42 | 6.58 | 29.91 | 5.92 | 29.17 | 5.00 |
| After manipulation | 27.54 | 6.55 | 26.33§ | 5.13 | 30.91 | 5.07 | 27.91 | 5.28 |
| Salivary cortisol (nmol/l) | ||||||||
| Baseline | 3.71 | 1.63 | 4.27 | 4.93 | 2.22 | 0.86 | 4.13 | 3.10 |
| After 15 min | 5.77 | 2.62 | 6.31§ | 3.51 | 2.48 | 1.35 | 8.18§ | 5.80 |
| After 30 min | 10.33§ | 6.46 | 11.59§ | 6.33 | 2.93 | 2.40 | 8.13 | 6.11 |
| After 45 min | 7.87§ | 5.17 | 9.05§§ | 4.81 | 2.23 | 1.71 | 7.64§ | 6.81 |
| Baseline to peak | 6.62§ | 6.56 | 7.31§ | 7.07 | 0.71 | 1.98 | 4.00 | 4.63 |
Note: Subjective assessments were given on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (very much).
*
p < .05, Bonferroni-corrected (vs. the informed control group). §p < .05, Bonferroni-corrected (vs. the uninformed control group). **p < .01, Bonferroni-corrected (vs. each of the control groups). §§p < .01, Bonferroni-corrected (vs. the uninformed control group).