Smash your crushing stress!

How does stress affect your performance? Can you do something about it?

Several months ago, I found a fantastic way to cope with stress, but before sharing this recipe, I would like to discuss the adverse effects of stress on our cognitive systems. 

Cognitive Architectures are implementations of Unified Theories of #cognition (Newell, 1990) whose aim is to provide a comprehensive explanation of all the capabilities that an intelligent agent requires. ACT-R is one of such cognitive architectures:

The cognitive architecture ACT-R is built by modules (visual, motor, procedural, declarative) and buffers, all access to modules is done through them. The content of these buffers represents the current state of the model. ACT-R solves problems by setting goals and firing rules that consume and modify declarative knowledge. Rules are fired based on utility, and utility is modified using reinforcement learning (if a rule helps to achieve the goal it is rewarded). 

ACT-R is an open-source project; you can download it and create models. The distribution comes with great tutorials and documentation. This is an excellent opportunity to practice your LISP and take a rest from Python, R, and Scala. Several years ago, I built a cognitive model with hundredths of rules and with an interactive lisp-based user interface; debugging my code was a blast! 

Ritter et al. (2006) modeled the effect of #stress on performance following an experimental design that involves arithmetic operations. Through adjustments to the parameters of the ACT-R architecture, they were able to replicate the four effects: perceptual narrowing, cognitive narrowing, decreased short-term memory, and reduced attention.

In some cases, stress affects the size of the visual perceptual field; that is, the periphery becomes less attended. In ACT-R, perceptual narrowing can be implemented by decreasing the distance-from-the-screen parameter. 

Cognitive narrowing maximizes exploitation over exploration; that is, you only apply the most reliable actions that you know, the ones that have been more successful in the past, and forget about trying new things.   

With lower short-term memory, you can handle fewer elements at one time, and your ability to perform computations is affected. In ACT-R, we can modify the decay rate of objects in short-term memory.  

Decreased attention can be modeled by means of providing secondary tasks, such as “being worried.” Worrying consumes resources and affects the performance of the main task. 

Stress affects every one of us in different ways. Cognitive modeling allows us to understand its effects on our cognitive systems and may provide guidelines on how to cope better with its effects. 

Many (many) years ago, when I was starting my undergraduate studies in Mexico City, a friend told me that he had the habit of punching a mattress when he was stressed. I heard him but didn’t pay much attention… what a mistake!

Let me show you my punching bag:

Since December, I punch this bag for around 30 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week. I follow the well-known routine of working out for 3 minutes and resting for 1. 

There are six basic punches (images taken from Super Street Fighter 4):

The jab: using the lead hand. The most important punch. Use the waist, and extend the arm. The other hand protects you. 

The cross: using your rear hand and rotating the waist. 

The lead hook: elbow up, rotate waist. Ken lowered his defense a bit...

The rear hook: a hook executed with the right hand. No demonstration is available with Ken.  

Lead uppercut: bend your knees, and drop your lead arm to a 90-degree angle from your body.

Rear uppercut: bend your knees, and drop your rear arm to a 90-degree angle from your body.

We discussed several effects of stress; hopefully, this article will help you manage your stress better.

What do you think?

References

Newell, A. (1990) Unified theories of cognition. 

Ritter, F. E., Reifers, A. L., Klein, A. C., & Schoelles, M. J. (2006). Lessons from defining theories of stress. In W. Gray (Ed.) Integrated Models of Cognitive Systems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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