Procedure and Study Design
In this experiment, the 78 female volunteers were split randomly into three subject groups. The effects of differing types of acoustic stimulants (independent variables) on each subject’s salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), mood, and subjective stress perception (dependent variables) were actively measured and compared within the groups. Each group was subjected to one of three different types of acoustic stimuli viz., relaxing music (RM), the sound of rippling water (SW), or a period of time without any auditory stimulation (R). The group that received no auditory stimulation served as the control group in this experiment. After subjection to acoustic stimulation, each group member was to complete The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST, see below). Eighteen of the eligible seventy-eight volunteers were not unable to fulfill their obligations and did not participate in the experiment (see Figure 1). A computer was used to randomly assign participants to their respective groups [11].
The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)…show more content… They were told that the stress test consisted of two parts: an oratory part and a mental calculation part in front of an audience. The public speaking part of the TSST was a five-minute simulation of a job interview in which participants were asked to talk about why they deserved to be hired for a specific job over others. After the interview, the subjects were informed of how the mental math portion of the TSST would work. The math section required the volunteers to stand in front of an audience and count backwards from 2043 by increments of 17, restarting if any errors were made. Participants were not explained the specifics of each part of the TSST at the very beginning of the experiment to prevent them from psychologically preparing themselves for the tasks beforehand
