The Leiden Stroop-like Stress Task: A Tool to Reveal Challenge-Threat Dynamics Using Graded Stress Induction

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/zve2s_v1
• Publication Date: 2025-01-28T09:54:34Z
• Authors: Jin Yan; Frenn Bultinck; Liwen Meng; Daan Scheepers; Henk van Steenbergen
• Keywords: Emotion; Health Psychology; Physiology; Cognitive Psychology; Psychology; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Stress

Stress evokes a complex repertoire of psychological and physiological responses associated with the appraisal of challenge or threat. This paper introduces the Leiden Stroop-like Stress Task (LSST), a paradigm designed to induce progressively increasing levels of stress and related changes in challenge-threat dynamics by manipulating time pressure (task difficulty), ability to achieve the task goal (uncontrollability), and negative feedback (social-evaluative threat) throughout four 10-minute blocks. Fifty-four healthy adults (63% female; mean age = 21 ± 3 years) completed the LSST, with repeated assessments of subjective stress and challenge-threat appraisal, and continuous cardiovascular recordings. Results confirmed the LSST’s effectiveness in eliciting progressive increases in subjective stress and sympathetic activation, reflected in heart rate, blood pressure, and pre-ejection period changes. On average, challenge-threat appraisals remained on the challenge side of the bipolar continuum, while physiological indicators suggested increases in relative threat as indicated by increased total peripheral resistance. Exploratory within-subject correlations revealed alignment between subjective stress and sympathetic activation, whereas challenge-threat appraisal demonstrated quadratic relationships with psychological and physiological measures. Latent class analysis of challenge-threat appraisal scores revealed three subgroups: non-responders, progressive challengers, and biphasic responders. These subgroups also showed distinct psychological but not physiological trajectories. Our findings demonstrate that the LSST enables the graded induction of stress and effectively captures challenge-threat dynamics across psychological and physiological levels. We discuss the potential of this paradigm to provide insights into individual differences and interventions aimed at increasing stress resilience.