Stress affects cognitive functions Assignment

Stress affects cognitive functions Assignment

Post a brief explanation of how stress affects cognitive functions, including the roles of the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Then provide examples of situations when stress affected your attention, memory, problem solving, or decision making. Finally, explain how you might mitigate the effects of stress on cognitive functions. (500 words or more)

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.

Post two ways mood might affect memory and learning and explain how. Explain one way that anxiety or depression can influence attentional and interpretive bias. Provide examples to support your response. Justify your response using the Learning Resources and current literature. (500 words or more)

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.

READINGS

Becker, M. W., & Leinenger, M. (2011). Attentional selection is biased toward mood-congruent stimuli. Emotion, 11(5), 1248–1254.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2), 336–353.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Gamo, N. J., & Arnsten, A. F. T. (2011). Molecular modulation of prefrontal cortex: Rational development of treatments for psychiatric disorders. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(3), 282–296.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Joormann, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2008). Updating the contents of working memory in depression: Interference from irrelevant negative material. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117(1), 182–192.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour, and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 434–445.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Phelps, E. A., & LeDoux, J. E. (2005). Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: From animal models to human behavior. Neuron, 48(2), 175–187.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Preston, S. D., Buchanan, T. W., Stansfield, R. B., & Bechara, A. (2007). Effects of anticipatory stress on decision making in a gambling task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121(2), 257–263.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.