What does too much stress do to performance?

• A. Eliminates workload.
• B. Reduces judgment, narrows focus, and hurts decision-making.
• C. Improves speed and risk-taking.
• D. Increases long-term memory retention.

Answer: (B)

Too much stress pushes performance beyond its optimal level, leading to cognitive narrowing and poorer decision quality. When arousal is too high, the body’s fight-or-flight response dominates, causing attention to fixate on the most immediate threat and reducing the mental bandwidth available for other information. This narrowed focus, combined with strained working memory and slower processing, degrades judgment and makes decision-making less reliable. In aviation terms, you might see a pilot become overly fixated on one problem or instrument, miss other cues, and make quicker but riskier or less well-considered choices under time pressure. Some people may feel they act faster under stress, but overall accuracy and safe, sound decisions suffer. Stress doesn’t eliminate workload; it often makes it feel heavier. It doesn’t reliably boost long-term memory for complex tasks, either, even though very strong emotions can sometimes produce standout memories, they don’t translate to better performance in flight-critical decisions.