Page 54 - The CoESPU Magazine N 1 - 2018

woken, passing on to an intermediate phase of optimal vigilance, and reaching to other characteristics
of hyper activation. In a reference system with the intensity of activation on the X axis and
performance and efficiency on the Y axis, one obtains an upturned U-shaped curve: performance is
impaired too low level of activation but also too high levels of activation in according to the Yerkes e
Dodson's paradigm.
As you can see, the level of arousal, linked to the level of attention, is strictly connected to level of
anxiety.
At any given moment, an individual performance may be located at a precise point of the curve.
Various physiological or pathological elements concur in determining the instantaneous collocation or
shift along the curve with consequent variation in the level of efficiency. The following variables may
influence performance:
• importance of the task
• duration of the task
• monotony of the task
• motivation of the subject
• traits of personality in a particularly emotivism
• cyclic circadian fluctuations
• sleepiness
• fatigue
• stress
• health status
• cerebral lesions

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