Question

Decision-making under Stress

A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (負面的) consequences of a decision.

The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.

“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”

For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.

This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.

The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.

Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.

This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.

1. We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.

A. keep rewards better in their memory

B. recall consequences more effortlessly

C. make risky decisions more frequently

D. learn a subject more effectively

2. According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.

A. preference for pleasure B. ways of making choices

C. tolerance of punishments D. responses to suggestions

3. The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.

A. women find it easier to fall into certain habits

B. men have a greater tendency to slow down

C. women focus more on outcomes

D. men are more likely to take risks

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.D

【解析】

試題分析: 文章介紹了在壓力之下人們作出決定時的考慮是不一樣的，并通過實驗說明人們在有壓力的時候通常想到的是積極的一面比較多，同時也介紹了男人和女人在面對不同的壓力時反映也是不同的。

1.A主旨題，原文第一段大意是面對壓力的環(huán)境，人們會想到積極的東西，忽視消極的東西，故選A。

2.B細節(jié)題，題干詞為research，定位于第二段，原文說 stress may change the way peoplemake choices(壓力可能改變?nèi)藗冏鲞x擇的方式).,故選B項。

3.D細節(jié)題，題干關(guān)鍵詞為 stressful situation，定位于第三段最后一句話。即In stressful situation in which risk-taking can pay off big, men tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.(在壓力情況下，如果冒險的回報很大，男人們會做的更好，但是，謹慎更重要時，女人們做的更好) ，D選項說男人們更傾向于冒險，故選D。

考點：社會現(xiàn)象類閱讀。