ABSTRACT This study investigates how chronic academic stress modulates value‐driven attentional capture. The stress group (students preparing for the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination, NPEE) and the control group completed a training‐test task. During training, colours (red/green) were associated with monetary rewards (high/low) when serving as targets. In the test phase, these value‐associated colours served as distractors during visual search. Task performance and distractor‐induced attentional capture effects were measured. Results indicated that: (1) the stress group showed elevated perceived stress, state anxiety, and negative affect, along with an attenuated cortisol awakening response (CAR), confirming successful chronic stress induction; (2) during training, the stress group responded faster to value‐associated targets than controls, indicating either stress‐enhanced attentional prioritisation of valued stimuli or elevated general vigilance; (3) in the test phase, the stress group showed greater attentional capture than controls specifically for high‐value (but not low‐value) distractors. Furthermore, this effect correlated with both blunted CAR and heightened anxiety in stressed individuals. These findings suggest that chronic academic stress differentially modulates attentional processing: it facilitates the selection of valued targets through increased reward salience, while compromising inhibitory control over high‐value distractors, thereby amplifying their attentional capture.
Song et al. (Sun,) studied this question.