Conclusions and Speculations

Abstract

In this book we have considered some of the major effects which such variegated arousers such as anxiety, introversion-extraversion, incentives, time of day, white noise and sleep deprivation have on performance. To what extent are there any general themes running through this gallimaufry of research? One such theme is formed by the Yerkes-Dodson law, which seems to have served as the basis for much of the research endeavour in this area. While we have been at pains to point out that one of the law’s disadvantages is its ability to encompass many different patterns of results with no apparent difficulty, it is nonetheless of interest that it does describe reasonably adequately findings involving extremely heterogenous arousers.