@article{ref1,
title="Stress-induced cortisol secretion impairs detection performance in x-ray baggage screening for hidden weapons by screening novices",
journal="Psychophysiology",
year="2014",
author="Thomas, Livia and Schwaninger, Adrian and Heimgartner, Nadja and Hedinger, Patrik and Hofer, Franziska and Ehlert, Ulrike and Wirtz, Petra H.",
volume="51",
number="9",
pages="912-920",
abstract="Aviation security strongly depends on screeners' performance in the detection of threat objects in x-ray images of passenger bags. We examined for the first time the effects of stress and stress-induced cortisol increases on detection performance of hidden weapons in an x-ray baggage screening task. We randomly assigned 48 participants either to a stress or a nonstress group. The stress group was exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test (TSST). Before and after stress/nonstress, participants had to detect threat objects in a computer-based object recognition test (X-ray ORT). We repeatedly measured salivary cortisol and X-ray ORT performance before and after stress/nonstress. Cortisol increases in reaction to psychosocial stress induction but not to nonstress independently impaired x-ray detection performance. Our results suggest that stress-induced cortisol increases at peak reactivity impair x-ray screening performance.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0048-5772",
doi="10.1111/psyp.12229",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12229"
}