Interactional influence of ability perception and task demand on cardiovascular response: Appetitive effects at three levels of challenge

Participants received feedback that they had low ability (n = 16) or moderate ability (n = 17) on a memory task and were given the chance to attain more and less challenging performance standards in subsequent work periods. Myocardial contractility and stroke volume responses were in an interactional pattern reflecting (a) a positive relationship between demand and heart performance for moderate ability participants in contrast with a nonmonotonic relationship between demand and heart performance for low ability participants and (b) stronger heart performance for the low ability group than for the moderate ability group when the standard was low and moderate, but the reverse of that when the standard was high. Blood pressure responses were similar, although systolic responses provided no evidence of a reversed perceived-ability/eardiovascular-response relationship when demand was high.