Abstract

The researches have been done so far in order to analyze the effects of arousal and activation on performance, focused merely on unstimulated and normal level, with disparate and contradictory results. The study of manipulation of arousal effect on the performance, results in more in-depth understanding. The purpose of current work is to analyze the impacts of stimulated arousal and activation on simple and discriminative reaction time (RT) performance. 30 non-athlete female university scholars (mean age: 21.3) volunteered to execute simple and discriminative RT tasks in unstimulated (Pre-test) and stimulated (Post-test) arousal states. Their Skin Conductance Level (SCL) was recorded constantly during performance. Multiple linear regression indicated that SCL has no effect on simple and discriminative RT performance in unstimulated and stimulated arousal level; whereas activation, reduces simple RT in stimulated arousal level (p<0.002). In addition, activation reduced discriminative RT in both unstimulated (p<0.022) and stimulated arousal levels (p<0.001). The results confirm the impact of activation on performance as well as emphasizing on the importance of the results obtained from real-life studies. © IDOSI Publications, 2011.