The two faces of cognitive motivation in cognitive stress: The stress-reducing effect of positive affect and the stress-intensifying effect of motivation.

Cognitive motivation reflects, among other aspects, the dispositional tendency to seek, engage in, and enjoy cognitively stimulating activities as well as intellectual novelty. Individuals with high cognitive motivation should show higher state motivation and a more positive affect in cognitive challenges but its conceptualization might also suggest lower stress in such activities. Since the interplay of these variables has to our knowledge not yet been examined using a purely cognitive stressor, participants in the present laboratory study (N = 201) were exposed for 20 minutes to a series of highly demanding reasoning tasks. Subjective stress during the experiment was measured five times using the Negative Affect subscale of the PANAS and a single visual analogue scale (VAS) item. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol were assessed as physiological stress indicators. Structural equation modelling was used to test whether cognitive motivation is directly associated with stress, and whether there exists an indirect effect via motivation to work on the tasks and the enjoyment of the tasks. Subjective stress was positively associated with motivation and negatively with task enjoyment, the indirect effect being significant only in case of the latter. No significant indirect effects were found with sAA or cortisol as outcomes, although the pattern of effects for sAA closely resembled the one observed for subjective stress. Interestingly, our findings suggest a bifurcated effect of cognitive motivation on stress during cognitive challenges: while positive affect might work as a protection, the motivation to face the challenge in fact rather seems to enhance it.