Psychophysiological stress research

HANS ZEIER

This paper gives an overview of physiological stress responses and shows

methods for measuring such responses in field studies. It discusses the available
techniques for assessing endocrinological and immune functions, cardiovascu­
lar functions, physical activity, electrodermal activity, muscle activity, respira­
tion, and, the size of the eye pupil. Furthermore, methods for collecting
psychological data are depicted. As examples for psychophysiological stress
research under natural conditions, a showmaster's heart rate responses during a
TV show are reported, as well as psychophysiological effects of work demands
in air traffic controllers and in simultaneous interpreting. The latter example
shows that mental overload in simultaneous interpreting may change the atti­
tude to the job: It is taken less seriously and a certain carelessness sets in. This
might be an effective self-defense mechanism against mental overload caused
by situations such as increased time on task, extremely fast speakers, unintelli­
gible speakers, and long working hours. It seems to occur rather automatically,
without being noticed by the performing interpreter. Especially with increased
time on task, interpreters' own judgement of output quality, whether they are
novices or experts, seems to become extremely unreliable.

1. Introduction

Stress is a commonly used term for a wide area of problems associated with
physiological, psychological and social human activities. Although the lay
public appears to have a fair understanding of the concept of stress, there is no
generally accepted scientific definition. Stress consists of the psychophysi­
ological processes caused by a perceived threat or danger. From a psychologi­
cal point of view the phenomenon has two components: (1) the experience of
a threatening and strenuous situation, and (2) the uncertainty whether one is
able to cope with this situation.

Interpreting 2:1-2 (1997), 231-249. DOI 10.1075/intp.2.1-2.09zei

ISSN 1384-6647 / Ε-ISSN 1569-982X © John Benjamins Publishing Company
232 HANS ZEIER

At the workplace, most of the stress is either due to social factors such as
interactions with colleagues, superiors and subordinates, or due to workload.
The latter is especially likely to become a stress factor if a subject cannot
control workload and cannot foresee critical situations. Typical professions in
this regard are those of air traffic controllers, doctors and nurses in intensive
care units, or simultaneous interpreters.
The term stress is generally used to denote three different aspects of the
complex phenomenon of stress: (1) The stimuli producing stress reactions,
sometimes also called stressors or objective stress; (2) the physiological and
behavioral stress reactions themselves; and (3) the various intervening pro-
cesses. Stress-producing stimuli and stress reactions can be observed, while
the intervening processes can only be assessed indirectly by measuring stress
reactions or questioning the subject being exposed to stress. The intervening
processes decide if an individual perceives a given situation as stressful or
not. This stress experience is also called subjective stress or strain. As it is an
individual experience, it is very subjective. What is stressful for one person
may not be so for another, and even what is stressful for a specific person on
one occasion may not be so on another.

2. Two separate response systems for active and passive stress

reactions

With respect to the behavioral stress reactions one can distinguish between
active and passive coping behavior. In accordance with the kind of behavior
chosen, active coping behavior consists of the fight or flight response. Both
alternatives evolved over time and are associated with physical activation. By
stimulating the sympathetic nervous system the body is instantaneously pre-
pared either to fight or to flee. Today's threats and strains can in most cases no
longer be managed by physical activity. However, they still activate the
sympathetic nervous system as in our evolutionary past. Therefore, physical
activity, as e.g. jogging, is a good means of reducing stress-induced overacti-
vation of body functions.
Situations which engender in us the fear of losing control usually elicit
some active coping behavior. However, if one loses control and does not
know which active behavior to select for managing a stressful situation, active
coping behaviors will get suppressed and passive coping occurs. This re-
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 233

sponse may range from avoidance behavior, resignation, feelings of inferior-

ity and lack of self-confidence to severe depression.
Active and passive coping behaviors are associated with two separate
physiological response systems: The sympatho-adrenomedullary system and
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system. Given their pioneering
work regarding the functions of these neuronal mechanisms, the sympatho-
adrenomedullary system is also called Cannon stress-axis (Cannon, 1932), and
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system Selye stress-axis (Selye,
1950). Stressors have an impact on the sensory organs. They transmit sensory
information over afferent neuronal pathways to the central nervous system. The
conscious analysis of this information is performed in the association cortex of
the brain, while emotional aspects are evaluated by the so called limbic system.
In stressful situations this system elicits physiological stress reactions.
The Cannon stress-axis stimulates the sympathetic nervous system via
the hypothalamus; this leads to an activation of the adrenal medulla and the
secretion of the catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine (Goldstein,
1987). As a result, blood pressure, heart rate, respiration cycle, metabolic
rate, muscle activity and electrodermal activity increase. On the other hand,
saliva secretion and peripheral body temperature — e.g. the temperature of
the fingers and hands — decrease, leading to feelings of dry mouth and cold
hands. Furthermore, energy stores are tapped and stored sugars and lipids are
released into the bloodstream. This physiological response is called ergotopic
response (Hess, 1948), as it prepares the organism to perform physical work.
Chronic stress may lead to increased blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and even
to coronary heart disease. On the behavioral level, chronic stress leads to
overactivity, nervousness, irritation, motor restlessness, aggressiveness, con-
tinuous readiness to fight and muscle tension.
The Selye-stress-axis leads from the hypothalamus via the pituitary
gland to the adrenal cortex. It stimulates the secretion of the adrenocortical
hormones, in particular the stress hormone Cortisol. Prolonged mental and
emotional stress causes disturbances in mineral metabolism. Furthermore, it
inhibits secretion of growth and sex hormones which may cause impotence,
and impair immune functions (Ader, Felton & Cohen, 1991; Van Rood,
Bogaards, Goulmy & van Houwelingen, 1993). The stress-induced effects on
immune functions explain why under conditions of under chronic stress one is
more likely to catch a cold or flu, which sometimes breaks out just at the
moment when a prolonged period of stress comes to an end. In stressful
234 HANS ZEIER

situations, the withdrawal into passivity, and even paralysis, can be accompa-
nied by an activation of the parasympathic nervous system. The consequences
are vegetative stress symptoms such as an upset stomach, vomiting or diar-
rhea, and in the long run ulcers and other gastrointestinal diseases.
The two stress-axes do not function independently of each other, they
may also be activated simultaneously. However, in most cases one of the two
stress-axes takes the lead and dominates over the other. The output systems
do not directly induce the corresponding active and passive coping behaviors,
but favor them in the sense of behavioral preferences. To a certain extent,
these dispositions can be changed, but also reinforced, by rational control.
Recent studies have shown that sympathetic activation is not necessarily
a negative event, particularly when a stressful episode is followed by rapid
recovery. Sympathetic activation can indicate successful as well as unsuccess-
ful coping, or in Selye's (1974) terminology, stress or distress. On the other
hand, the pituitary-adrenocortical axis appears to react in a more differentiated
manner. It is mainly activated by distress. According to Frankenhaeuser,
Lundberg & Forsman (1980), and Dienstbier (1989), passive coping is associ-
ated with pituitary-adrenocortical arousal, while successful coping seems to
suppress the Cortisol response. However, this dissociation might depend on a
high level of personal control in task performance (Frankenhaeuser et al., 1980)
or be more typical of chronic rather than short term stress, because periods of
excitement, engagement, and involvement are reported to correlate with brisk
increases in Cortisol levels (Singer, 1974).

3. Physiological measurements in stress research

In the field of psychophysiological stress research physiological responses

are measured, in order to assess subjective stress or strain associated with a
particular situation. Alterations in the time course of physiological functions
are used as an indicator of emotional and mental processes. As mind and body
form a unity, every physiological function may be influenced in a certain way
by some psychological process. Therefore, a wide variety of physiological
functions can be used for this purpose. However, some physiological func-
tions are much easier to record than others, and therefore are more frequently
used. Continuous recordings from free moving subjects can be obtained by
ambulatory monitoring, using either biotelemetry or portable recording de-
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 235

vices. For stress research, observations in natural settings are more appropri-
ate than laboratory experiments, since simulated stress is quite different from
real stress. The following overview, which merely provides examples rather
than being complete, shows some examples of physiological functions used in
stress research.

3.1 Endocrinological and immune functions

Parameters representing a wide variety of endocrinological and immune

functions can be assessed by analyzing blood samples. These techniques are
very well established and routinely used in clinical medicine. However,
taking blood samples has to be considered as a stress inducing event. There-
fore, it is not very suitable for stress research. As an alternative, urine or saliva
samples can be taken. Many substances circulating in the blood are also
present in these fluids, although some of them only in very low concentra-
tions. Urine samples are sometimes used for assessing the catecholamines
epinephrine and norepinephrine. However, collecting urine samples might
also be rather unpleasant. The least problematic assessment procedure for
stress research is the collection of saliva samples. Saliva samples can be
collected through a simple procedure that has a subject chew a small cotton
roll for a minute or two. Today's analytical techniques are now sensitive
enough to reliably determine even very low concentrations of a variety of
substances present in saliva. Parameters most frequently used are Cortisol
(Kirschbaum & Hellhammer, 1989), dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone,
catecholamines and immunoglobulin A (Kugler, Hess & Haake, 1992;
Hennig, 1994).

3.2 Cardiovascular functions

Recordings of cardiovascular functions are frequently used in psychophysi-

ological stress research since stressful situations have a considerable impact
on them. Continuous recordings of heart rate can be easily obtained with a
cardiotachometer. Such a device provides beat-to-beat measures of the heart
rate, usually by recording the intervals between R-waves of the electrocardio-
gram. Measuring blood pressure is more complicated, although there exist
portable, fully automatic devices that inflate an arm-cuff according to a pre-
programmed schedule and record both systolic and diastolic pressure. Some
236 HANS ZEIER

approximation of peripheral blood flow can be obtained by using plethysmog-

raphy or measuring skin temperature.

3.3 Physical activity

Body movements and physical activity can be assessed quantitatively using

mechanical motion detectors, usually acceleration sensors. Such actometers
transform body movements into an electrical analog signal. The output of
even very simple devices shows significant correlations with metabolic pa-
rameters such as oxygen uptake (Avons, Garthwaite, Davies, Murgatroyd, &
James, 1988). When monitoring heart rate, actometers are routinely used in
order to assess heart rate increases which are not caused by physical activity.
Furthermore, subjects can be requested to answer questions regarding behav-
ior and emotional state by feedback signals of emotionally induced increases
of heart rate (Myrtek, Brügner, Fichtler, König, Müller, Foerster, & Höppner,
1988). Other uses of actometers include the assessment of motor restlessness,
patterns of physical activity or sleep quality.

3.4 Electrodermal activity

Sympathetic activation of the sweat glands reduces the electrical resistance of

the skin. If one places two electrodes on a skin surface rich in sweat glands,
e.g. on the palm or ventral surface of the digits, and applies a small constant
current through them, alterations in galvanic skin resistance or skin conduc-
tance can be measured. This parameter responds very sensitively to sensory
or emotional stimulation (Boucsein, 1992). This technique is frequently used
in psychophysiological research and much easier to apply than direct mea-
surement of sweat activity. The latter could be carried out by counting wet
sweat glands on a circumscribed surface area of the skin, or by measuring
vapor output or total weight loss.

3.5 Muscle activity

In psychophysiological research, interest in muscle activity focuses on skel-

etal muscle tension, as it is maintained via involuntary mechanisms. Muscle
tension is the resting state of muscular contraction. It consists of a so called
isometric contraction, since the length of the entire muscle remains un-
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 237

changed. In a state of complete relaxation, there is virtually no muscular

contraction, and, consequently, no tension. In a stress situation, muscle ten-
sion increases in order to prepare the body to perform the movements neces-
sary for fighting or fleeing. A limb starts moving, as soon as the tension of an
associated muscle exceeds the mechanical resistance caused by gravity and
tension of antagonistic muscles. In such situations, muscle length decreases,
and an isotonic contraction occurs. Isometric and isotonic muscle contrac-
tions are both the result of summated contractions of a certain number of
single muscle fibers. The more muscle fibers contract simultaneously, the
bigger the resulting muscle tension. Contraction of a muscle fiber is initiated
by an electrical current, called action potential, flowing over its membrane. A
small portion of this electrical activity spreads from the muscle to the skin and
can be recorded with surface electrodes to produce an electromyogram
(EMG). If many muscle fibers contract simultaneously, the electrical poten-
tials may be quite large. In order to get an indicator of muscle tension, the
potentials picked up with two surface electrodes placed over the muscle group
to be evaluated, are first amplified. In a next step, the output of the amplifier is
rectified, so that the positive and negative deflections of the current wave
appear in one direction. This signal is then fed into an integrator which
accumulates the deflections over a short period of time. The result is a
numeric measurement of total electrical activity as a function of time, usually
calibrated in microvolts per second. Although this integrated EMG is not a
direct measure of either muscle tension or muscular contraction, it gives a
fairly good estimation of tension in skeletal muscles. Especially in the range
of isometric contraction, the relationship between EMG amplitudes and
muscle tension is quite linear. Therefore, recording integrated EMG has
become the most popular technique for measuring muscle tension in psycho-
physiological research.

3.6 Respiration

There are several possibilities for monitoring the respiratory cycle. The
easiest way is to put a flexible strain gauge belt around the chest or upper
abdomen. Respiratory movements then alter the length of the belt. The
resulting alterations in electrical resistance can be measured with an elec-
tronic device. In this way, the respiratory movements are transformed into an
electrical analog signal.
238 HANS ZEIER

3.7 Pupillometrics

Psychological influences, such as positive and negative emotions, perceptual

processes and mental activity, have very consistent effects upon the size of
the eye pupil. Alterations in pupil size can be recorded with a small TV
camera, fed into a computer and automatically analyzed.

4. Psychological measurements in stress research

In stress research, psychological data can be collected either by an indepen-

dent expert who is observing and recording the behavior of the subjects to be
investigated, or through self-report and self-assessment. Furthermore, in
many situations objective data can be collected by using some performance
measurement, such as workoutput or workload. Behavioral assessment by an
observer has its limits with respect to the number of subjects to be simulta-
neously observed and the observer may interfere with the investigated situa-
tion, especially if one has to intervene in subjects' privacy. However, a
minimal amount of observational data and objective measurements should
always be collected since they are far less biased than self-reported data. One
method for simultaneously observing a larger number of subjects is the
multimoment analysis. With this technique repeated brief observations are
carried out according to a predetermined sampling schedule.
The simplest means of collecting self-reported data are questionnaires and
interviews. Standardized questionnaires exist for the assessment of control
variables such as personality traits, intelligence, or feelings of anxiety and other
emotions. For recording stressful encounters, memory problems may arise if
there is a large time lag between the stressful events and their report in a
questionnaire or interview. Furthermore, verbal reports about past experiences
are frequently general self-descriptions of reaction tendencies, representing
characteristics of the subject's cognitive self-representation, rather than of his
or her behavior (Ericson & Simon, 1980). Therefore, self-reports about
stressful events and stress-related behaviors should be made at the moment
when these events occur, or, in order to avoid situational interference and
behavioral reactivity, shortly thereafter. This can be achieved by way of
keeping systematic diaries. Recently, sophisticated assessment procedures that
rely on modern data acquisition technologies have become available. Using
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 239

small pocket computers, psychological data can be self-recorded and accu-

rately timed under real life conditions (Buse & Pawlik, 1996; Perrez &
Reicherts, 1996). Furthermore, with acoustic beep signals which occur at
certain times or when a physiological measurement exceeds a threshold, such
recording systems can prompt the subject to respond to a questionnaire asking
about activities, mood, coping behavior, or other aspects of the actual situation.
The importance, for psychological assessments, of taking verbal as well
as nonverbal behavior into account is supported by physiological findings
indicating that verbal information is predominantly processed in the left brain
hemisphere and nonverbal in the right hemisphere. The complementarity of
functions of the two hemispheres of the human brain is an efficient arrange-
ment because each can independently bring to bear its own abilities to
develop and fashion the neuronal input (Zeier, 1989). In general, the left
hemisphere is specialized in language and in attending to fine imaginative
details in all descriptions and reactions, i.e., it is analytic and sequential.
Furthermore, the left hemisphere can also carry out arithmetic and other
computer-like operations. With its capacity for logical thinking and detailed
analysis, it can detect linear relations between causes and effects in isolated
subsystems. The right hemisphere, on the other hand, performs synthetic
functions. It is specialized in spatial, pictorial and coherent perception. It has
practically no verbal, but only musical abilities. In contrast to the abstract
thinking of the left hemisphere, the thinking of the right hemisphere is
associative and intuitive. In integrating detailed information into pictures and
symbols it achieves holistic and synthetic thinking. With this capability it is
better able to comprehend complex relationships, reciprocal causalities and
holistic values than the left hemisphere which is specialized in analyzing fine
details.

5. Examples of psychophysiological stress research

5.1 Heart rate response of a TV showmaster

Figure 1 shows the recordings of heart rate and physical activity of a TV

showmaster at work. During rehearsal the subject was performing the same
activities as during the live transmission, namely introducing the different
blocks of the TV show. The upper recording trace depicts physical activity. It
240 HANS ZEIER

Figure 1. Heart rate and physical activity of a TV showmaster at work. Note the marked
increase in heart rate occuring during a life transmission, but not during the
previous rehearsal.

clearly proves" that the observed increases in heart rate are induced by stress
and not physical activity. During rehearsal, only few alterations in heart rate
are observed. On the other hand, during the live transmission, which repre-
sents a real challenge, marked increases in heart rate occurred. A detailed
analysis showed that the peaks appeared whenever the subject was announc-
ing a new show block. The last peak coincides with his last appearance on
screen. Thereafter, heart rate quickly returns to the pretransmission level,
proving that the subject is well adapted to his job.
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 241

5.2 Psychophysiological effects of work demands in air traffic controllers

The professional activity of air traffic controllers (ATC) was investigated in a

larger field study, during which physiological and psychological data were
collected (Zeier, 1994; Zeier, Brauchli, & Joller-Jemelka, 1996). Each subject
completed two question sessions and two working sessions, once during a low
traffic period and the second time during a period of high traffic. The working
sessions lasted about 100 minutes and were always the first work period of the
subject's usual working day. For the question sessions standardized question-
naires were used. Different aspects of subjective and objective workload
were recorded for all the working sessions investigated.
The questionnaire parameters chosen were psychological stress symp-
toms, such as complaints about physical discomfort, depression, negative
self-communication, work-increased anxiety, coping behavior and subjective
ratings and interpretations of various aspects of the work situation. The mean
values measured were within the normal range, and only a few significant
differences were found between the two question sessions. However, about
10 to 15 percent of the ATCs showed elevated values for psychological stress
symptoms, to an extent that indicated that they might have serious stress
problems at work and/or in their private life.
In order to assess stress-induced alterations in concentrations of Cortisol
and immunoglobulin A, saliva samples were taken before and after each of
the two working sessions. Additional saliva samples were taken before and

Table 1. Concentrations of salivary Cortisol and immunoglobulin A of air traffic

controllers performing a working session. Postsession values are adjusted
for session duration (mean ± SD).

N Before After
First working session
Cortisol (nmol/1) 126 10.5 ± 7.6 11.3 ± 4.4
Immunoglobulin A (mg/dl) 126 3.0 ± 1.6 4.1 ± 2.2
Second working session
Cortisol (nmol/1) 126 8.7 ± 6.2 11.9 ± 5.4
Immunoglobulin A (mg/dl) 126 2.6 ± 1.4 3.9 ± 2.2
Control situation
Cortisol (nmol/1) 10 12.1 ± 5.6 6.9 ± 2.1
Immunoglobulin A (mg/dl) 10 3.4 ± 1.9 2.9 ± 1.3
242 HANS ZEIER

after a routinely scheduled lecture about a future European air traffic control
system, which provided the control situation. This lecture started at 08:15
a.m. and the time interval between the two saliva samples was 100 minutes,
i.e. the same as the average length of the working sessions investigated. The
data of the assayed saliva samples are summarized in Table 1. Concentration
of Cortisol increased significantly during the working session, but decreased
during the control situation. The latter is due to the well known circadian
variation in Cortisol concentration, showing a peak followed by a marked
decline during the first hours of the morning (Vining, McGingley, Maksvytis,
& Ho, 1983; Kirschbaum & Hellhammer, 1989). In contrast to the expected
immunosuppressive effects, the working sessions caused a marked increase
in the concentration of salivary immunoglobulin A (slgA). This increase,
however, was not correlated with the salivary Cortisol response nor with the
amount of actual or perceived workload. It seems to be determined by a
different mechanism than the Cortisol response, since the latter was signifi-
cantly correlated with actual and perceived workload. Furthermore, the Corti-
sol response was more pronounced in the second sessions. This fits well with
the fact that the workload was slightly higher in the second than in the first
sessions. Therefore, salivary Cortisol may be a valid indicator of work de-
mands. A comparison with psychological data revealed a negative correlation
between the Cortisol response and some stress factors such as alcohol con-
sumption, coping by drinking, drug consumption, difficulty to relax from
work and decreased bounceback flexibility. This finding could be a conse-
quence of some particular burnout behavior (Freudenberger & Richelson,
1980; Jones, 1982). Burnout is not only characterized by the above mentioned
factors, but also by a certain indifference to and carelessness on the job. It
may be assumed that indifference and carelessness reduce the psychological
and physiological stress reactions, thus leading to a lower Cortisol response.
Although this coping strategy may be helpful to an overloaded ATC, it could
compromise air traffic safety.
Air traffic controllers usually exhibit strong professional pride. As re-
ported elsewhere (Zeier, 1992), the subjects of the present study were well
satisfied with their work, although they were dissatisfied with the manage-
ment, and they showed high positive scores on mood scales of an adjective
check list measuring their emotional response to the work situation. This
positive emotional engagement might explain the increase in sIgA. Therefore,
measuring this physiological response seems to be a valuable tool for differ-
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 243

entiating between positive and negative stress effects (eustress and distress
according to Selye, 1974) or between successful and unsuccessful adaptation
(Levine & Ursin, 1991), or coping (Monat & Lazarus, 1991; Perrez &
Reicherts, 1992; Gaillard, 1993) with situational demands.

5.3 Psychophysiological effects of work demands in simultaneous

interpreting

Simultaneous interpreting is a highly complex activity (Gerver, 1974; Moser,

1978; Paradis, 1994) that requires the interpreter to simultaneously listen,
analyze, comprehend, translate, edit and reproduce in real-time a speaker's
utterance. All interpreters work with at least two, many with three or more
languages that must be constantly maintained at a high level of proficiency.
During a regular 30-minute turn, working from an original speaker whose
speaking speed is between 100 and 130 words per minute, considered more or
less comfortable depending on the source language involved, an interpreter
processes and delivers final copy of an average of 3000 to 3900 words, being
equivalent to approx. 12 to 15 type-written double-spaced pages. With fast
speakers, speaking at a rate of 135 to 180 words per minute, the interpreter's
output can increase to 4050 - 5400 words, or 16 to 22 pages per 30-minute
turn. As a comparison, the output of translators working as permanents in an
international organization or in a company translation service varies between
3 and 10 pages a day. (Moser-Mercer, Kiinzli, & Korac, 1998)
Over time interpreters have developed working conditions designed to
alleviate fatigue and help to ensure high quality of output over the course of a
normal working day, normal work week and over the course of their career.
These include a recommendation that simultaneous interpreters not work
alone for longer than approximately 40 minutes for a single speech or short
meeting and that they take turns roughly every 30 minutes when working all-
day meetings. While it is generally accepted that minor stress facilitates
memory performance, because it raises the baseline level of arousal, intense
stress produces anxiety and creates overarousal which hinders cognitive
functioning, including memory performance (Searleman & Herrmann, 1994).
Cardiovascular activity measures (Klonowicz, 1994) point to systematic and
increased arousal in simultaneous interpreting, producing blood pressure
changes that mimic those leading to the development of essential hyperten-
sion. (Moser-Mercer et al., 1998)
244 HANS ZEIER

In a preliminary study (Moser-Mercer, 1998) psychophysiological stress

reactions and performance of interpreters were investigated. Five subjetcs,
four females and one male, volunteered to participate in the study. All of them
were experienced conference interpreters, with a minimum of twelve and a
maximum of 25 years of professional experience in the booth. They had
English as their native language, and German as their second or third lan-
guage. Four speeches by German politicians were chosen as realistic source
texts. They covered highly topical political and economic issues and had been
delivered between August 1995 and September 1995. The issues had ap-
peared in the daily press, both in German and English papers. All four texts
were spoken by a native speaker of German, at a rate of 120 words per
minute, onto audio casette tapes in the sound-proof recording studio of the
Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation of the University of Geneva. They
were checked for accuracy and speed by an independant German speaking
judge. The experiment was carried out in the professional interpreting facili-
ties of the Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation. The size of the interpreting
booths, sound quality, air quality, visibility and working surfaces all conform
to ISO-norms. The interpreter's output was recorded on tape. Interpreters
participated in the experiment on a day and time chosen by themselves in
accordance with their availabilities. Evening sessions were excluded. Sub-
jects were given information in advance of the experiment, the titles of the
speeches together with the dates and the names of the original speakers. In
order to be able to situate the input material, they were informed about the
rationale of the experiment and the fact that they had to collect saliva samples
in order to determine stress hormones. Subjects were asked to budget at least
3 hours for the experiment. On site, they were familiarized with the installa-
tion, given water and drinking cups for their convenience, as well as written
instructions on the saliva tests, and were told that they should stop working
whenever they felt that their quality of output no longer met their
expectations. The experiment started with a first saliva test. Then, the first
speech was played and the interpreters started to work. The first break
came after 30 minutes, lasting about 2 minutes for performing the second
saliva test and changing the tapes. The next break came at roughly 60
minutes, again lasting about 2 minutes for performing the third saliva test and
changing the tapes. No subject worked long enough for a third break. All
cassette tapes of the interpreters' output were transcribed and analyzed for
quality according to a rating scale adapted for this purpose from similar rating
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 245

scales used by researchers in the field of interpreting (Gerver, 1974; Barik,

1971).
Test tubes (salivettes, Sarsted, Germany) marked with the personal code-
number of each subject and containing a small sterile cotton roll were provided
before the test session, after 30 minutes and after 60 minutes. Subjects were
instructed to remove the test tube stopper, take the roll out of the test tube, put
it in their mouth and chew it slightly for exactly two minutes. Then they had to
put the saliva filled cotton roll back into the test tube, seal the tube with the
stopper and return it to the investigator. The test tubes were immediately
shipped to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Department of Behav-
ioral Sciences) in order to be frozen until laboratory analysis of all samples
could be performed within a single run. Instructions for taking the saliva
samples were handed out in written form. The subjects were instructed not to
eat during the experiment, and to rinse their mouth well with water 10 minutes
before the first saliva collection. Smoking was prohibited, but water, sweets and
chewing-gum were allowed. For laboratory analysis, test tubes were thawed
and centrifuged in order to extract the saliva from the cotton. The volume of
saliva in each vial was recorded. Concentrations of Cortisol and immunoglobu-
lin A were determined by laboratory personal who had no knowledge of the
experimental conditions of the analyzed samples. Concentrations of free
Cortisol were determined using the RIA kit Cortisol Coat-A-Count from
Diagnostic Products and a gamma counter from Canberra-Packard using the
RIA-CALC and 4PL programs. Concentrations of immunoglobulin A were
assayed by the single radial immunodiffusion (RID) method. For this proce-
dure, saliva samples and three human reference sera of known concentrations
were deposited by micropipette into cylindrical wells in an agar plate impreg-
nated with monospecific goat serum containing antibodies to human immuno-
globulin A (LC-Partigen-IgA, Behring Diagnostika, Marburg a.L., Germany)
and incubated at room temperature for 24 hours. Precipitation ring diameter
formed in agar was measured with an ocular micrometer. The immunoglobulin
A concentrations were determined by regression equations derived from the
square of the ring diameters of the reference sera against their concentrations
(Mancini, Carbonara, & Heremans, 1965).
The data of the assayed saliva samples are summarized in Table 2. Due to
the small number of subjects investigated, the data do not reach any statistical
significance. However, they show some remarkable trends which are in line
with the above mentioned findings in air traffic controllers. Secretion of
246 HANS ZEIER

Table 2. Concentrations of salivary Cortisol and immunoglobulin A in interpreters

performing a session of simultaneous interpreting.

N Before After 30 min After 60 min

Cortisol (nmol/1) 5 10.6 12.5 9.0
Immunoglobulin A (mg/dl) 5 5.0 10.5 8.7

Cortisol and immunoglobulin A tend to rise between initial measurements and

those taken at 30 minutes, probably caused by a considerable work load and
emotional engagement, and then decrease with further time on task. It can be
assumed that, since none of the interpreters had ever participated in such a
study before, the baseline value taken at 0 minutes most likely reflects some
elevated level of stress. A further increase in stress and considerable emo-
tional engagement can be deduced from increased values at 30 minutes. The
decrease in Cortisol and immunoglobulin A during the second 30 minutes may
be due to reduced eagerness on the job. This would very well correlate with
considerable anecdotal evidence from professional interpreters who will
readily admit that, if put in a situation where they have to exceed their
personal limits, they just could not care less after a certain time. This assump-
tion is supported by the finding that performance quality showed a marked
impairment during the second 30 minutes. Especially in the category of most
serious errors, i.e. meaning errors, almost twice as many errors were made
during the second 30 minutes as during the first 30 minutes. Considering that
each meaning error, no matter how minor, distorts the message, the consider-
able increase during the second 30 minutes on task represents a significant
decline in output quality. Interestingly, the interpreters themselves did not
realize this performance deficit, since they continued on task at least till the
second break took place. This same lack of awareness of deterioration in
quality can readily be seen in less experienced interpreters as well: students
are usually unaware of how poor their performance can become with increas-
ing time on task. With students, the point of diminishing returns appears
usually after 10 to 15 minutes, as they have not yet developed the type of
efficient processing strategies professionals have. Increased automation of
sub-processes leads to more efficient utilization of cognitive resources and
novices usually still have a long way to go (Moser-Mercer & Künzli, 1995).
One must conclude that the professional interpreters included in this analysis
 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESEARCH 247

decided to stop only once their fatigue level had reached such proportions that
they felt unable to continue. This demonstrates that interpreters' own judge-
ment of output quality, whether they are novices or experts, is extremely
unreliable after increased time on task.
Analogous to the above mentioned burnout behavior of some air traffic
controllers (Zeier, 1994), mental overload in simultaneous interpreting may
change the attitude to the job: It is taken less seriously and a certain careless-
ness sets in. This might be an effective self-defense mechanism against
mental overload caused by situations as increased time on task, extremely fast
speakers, unintelligible speakers, and long working hours. It seems to occur
rather automatically, without being noticed by the performing interpreter.

Department of Behavioral Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,

Zürich/Switzerland

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