2.2. Procedure
Two visits to the laboratory were scheduled for participants, with a
two-week gap between each session. At the first visit, the participants
finished a demographics questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II
(BDI-II), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T). Baseline
measurements of cognitive flexibility were also administered using the
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) to keep any group differences from
influencing experimental results.
To reduce cortisol and EBR changes, the second laboratory visit was
arranged between 14:00 and 18:00 (Barbato et al., 2000). Upon arrival,
participants measured spontaneous EBR and pupil diameter for 3 min
during the baseline state (Ocular 1). They then completed the Remote
Association Task (RAT) and Alternative Uses Task (AUT) tests before the
acute stress induction. Following the completion of the Montreal Imaging
Stress Tasks (MIST) or the control task, Ocular 2 was assessed while the
participant was continuously thinking about either an angry or a calm
memory. Subsequently, participants performed the post-test WCST and the
post-test AUT.
Twenty min after the end of AUT, Ocular 3 was administered for 3 min.
After Ocular 3, the participant started to complete the post-test RAT.
Spirit-10 wireless telemetry biofeedback instruments (Mind Media, B.V.
Netherlands) were used to measure heart rate throughout the experiment.
Electrodes were applied to the chest for an electrocardiogram (ECG), and
BioTrace+ was used to evaluate the ECG data at a sample rate of 2048 Hz.
The spontaneous EBR and pupil diameter were measured during the MIST
task and Ocular tasks. The saliva samples were taken at the time points
of T, and the STAI-S and PANAS were evaluated at the time points of S
(see Fig. 1).