Design of Leiden Stroop-like Stress Task

(a) Trial procedure and main components for stress induction. The vertically arranged frames illustrate the sequence of stimuli in each 2-second trial. The response deadline was adaptively adjusted using a staircase algorithm to increase task difficulty across four blocks. Four colored zones, highlighted in the donut surrounding the stimuli and the real-time performance chart at the bottom, reflected current performance. Corresponding textual zone feedback was displayed at the end of each trial. Block repetitions were triggered when participants got stuck in the orange or red zones, typically occurring in Block 3 and Block 4, during which the evaluator was also present. Note that in the actual task, stimuli were presented on a black background. (b) Participants' average performance progressively declined across blocks, and participants no longer met the task goal to stay in the green zone in Block 3 and Block 4. Grey lines and small dots indicate individual responses.