The effect of the perception of mild degrees of threat on performance.

The prediction was made that the introduction of a mild degree of personal threat in the course of the solution of a simple task would result in an increase of time required to complete the task and of errors in performance. 50 college students were given the task of translating sentences into a simple code. Mildly threatening sentences were interspersed among neutral sentences. With a single exception threat sentences required longer to complete and produced greater errors in translation. Experimental results appear to amply demonstrate the prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)