|
Cardiovascular Reactivity
We have developed a
computer-based assessment strategy for measuring individual differences
in cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress or challenge. This
strategy involves the presentation of several different types of
cognitive tasks under standardized laboratory conditions. The
difficulty associated with each of these tasks is performance-adjusted.
Task difficulty (for example, the number of items to be remembered in a
memory task) is continuously adjusted, upwards and downwards, to
maintain an optimal level of challenge (about 60 % accuracy) for each
individual and throughout each task.
The
"Pittsburgh Battery"
The Pittsburgh Battery
demo consists of four psychological tasks (target, scanning, tracking,
and stroop tasks) and a baseline module.
By
clicking here, you can have access to the Pittsburgh Battery software
that was used in this research. We will be including new source code on
this site as soon as we can prepare it, updated to run on more modern
computing facilities. In most of the studies in which we have used
these programs, we have supplemented them with additional software to
facilitate online data collection of physiological signals, but this has
not been provided here.
Reactivity
Findings:
|
The use of multiple tasks and multiple testing
occasions for assessing cardiovascular reactivity enhances the
reliability of measurement. |
-
Kamarck, T.W.,
Jennings, J.R. & Manuck, S.B. (1993). Psychometric applications
in the assessment of cardiovascular reactivity. Homeostasis
in Health and Disease, 34, 229-243.
|
|
Responses to this battery have been shown to be
associated with responses to psychological challenges during daily
life using two different methods for assessing this relationship.
|
- Kamarck, T.W. &
Lovallo, W. (2003). Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological
challenge: Conceptual and measurement considerations. Psychosomatic Medicine,
65, 9-21.
Abstract
|
|
Task battery responses have been shown to be
associated with subclinical cardiovascular disease in a sample of
Finnish men (Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study) as well as among
the men in the Pittsburgh Healthy Heart Project. |
- Kamarck, T.W.,
Everson, S.A., Kaplan, G.A., Manuck, S.B., Jennings, J.R.,
Salonen, R.S. & Salonen, J.T. (1997). Exaggerated blood pressure
responses during mental stress are associated with enhanced
carotid atherosclerosis in middle aged Finnish men: Findings
from the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study. Circulation,
96, 3842-3848.
Abstract
|
- Jennings, J.R.,
Kamarck, T.W., Everson-Rose, S.A., Kaplan, G.A., Manuck, S.B. &
Salonen, J.T. (2004). Exaggerated blood pressure responses
during mental stress are prospectively related to enhanced
carotid atherosclerosis in middle-aged Finnish men. Circulation,
110, 2198-2203.
Abstract
|
- Kamarck, T.W.,
Manuck, S.B., Sutton Tyrrell, K., & Muldoon, M.F. (2002). Gender
differences in the association between cardiovascular reactivity
to mental stress and carotid artery atherosclerosis: The
Pittsburgh Healthy Heart Project. Circulation, 106
(supplement), II-739.
|
More Readings for the "Pittsburgh
Battery." |
