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Journal Article 2010; 31(4): 577-581 PubMed PMID: 20802442 Citation  Keywords:  Educational Measurement, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone:blood, Male, Radioimmunoassay, Statistics, Nonparametric, Students, Testosterone:blood, Universities,.   

OBJECTIVES: After dominance-related encounters, testosterone levels increase in winners and decrease in losers. In humans, many exceptions have been described. It is possible that the complicated patterns in humans result from the methods limitations--measurement of hormone concentrations in simulated competitive events or sport instead in real-life situations.

METHODS: Here we studied changes in hormonal levels and self-estimated attractivity in real situations, namely in students after written exams.

RESULTS: We observed that the testosterone and cortisol increased or decreased in relation to the number of wrong answers on the exam. The number of wrong answers was a better predictor of the hormonal changes (increase of both testosterone and cortisol in successful, decrease in unsuccessful students) than the self-estimated number of wrong answers or a subjectively opinionated impression from the exam. On the contrary, the concentration of hormones before the exam and self-estimated attractivity were better predictors of the subjective impression from the exam than the number of wrong answers.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the students' subconsciousness, which directly influences the concentration of hormones, is able to objectively estimate results of an exam better than their consciousness....

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Comparative Study 2006; 27(5): 669-674 PubMed PMID: 17186998 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Educational Measurement:methods, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone:analysis, Male, Saliva:chemistry, Stress, Psychological, Students:psychology,.   

OBJECTIVE: In the present study we evaluated whether intensity and novelty of oral academic examinations are reflected in saliva cortisol titre.

DESIGN AND SETTING: 91 pupils completed questionnaires on sensation seeking according to Zuckerman as well as on stress coping strategies and rated their individual stress intensity upon minor oral examinations. 26 of these students donated saliva samples before as well as ten and 30 minutes after the examination to quantify cortisol using an immuno assay. Oral examinations during the school year, where students may re-adjust their grade on subsequent examinations, were regarded as minor oral examinations, whereas school exit examinations, where students do not have the chance to correct their grade anymore and may even risk a delay of several months in their academic career when they fail, were regarded as major examinations.

RESULTS: Minor oral examinations revealed either a moderate, but significant, increase in saliva cortisol titre by 1.1 fold or did not have a significant impact on cortisol titre. In contrast, school exit exams elevated cortisol titre 5.2 fold. In minor oral examinations, moderate correlations between cortisol titre and subsets in sensation seeking and coping strategies, respectively, were identified.

CONCLUSION: Intensity and novelty of an academic examination is significantly correlated to cortisol titre. Minor oral examinations, with little consequences on academic career, only have a minor impact on cortisol titre, whereas school exit examinations, which are novel to students and may have major consequences on the academic career, elicit a major increase in cortisol titre....

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Journal Article 2003; 24(6): 449-453 PubMed PMID: 15073574 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Educational Measurement, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone:metabolism, Male, Psychometrics, Saliva:metabolism, Stress, Psychological:diagnosis, Students:psychology,.   

OBJECTIVES: Although it is widely accepted that academic examinations are accompanied by a cortisol increase, some recent studies reported either no effect or even a decline of the cortisol level. To reevaluate these discrepancies, we investigated whether personality traits predict the cortisol response upon academic examinations.

SETTING AND DESIGN: Nineteen male and female adolescent pupils (17 to 19 years) participated in the study. Two anticipated, mandatory, routine written examinations were used as familiar stressful conditions, whereas an anticipated, mandatory oral examination in front of a board of known and unknown examiners was used as a novel stressful situation.

METHODS: Baseline, pre- and postexamination salivary cortisol were quantified and correlated with psychometric measures, including self-estimated stress level, obtained from a five-point scale, and sensation seeking subscales according to Zuckerman.

RESULTS: Salivary cortisol response, taken as an average of all subjects, showed a transient increase upon examinations. However, comparing individual cortisol responses revealed three distinct cortisol profiles, including a transient increase (Type 1), a transient decline (Type 2), or no response (Type 3). Type 1 predominates in examinations combined with novelty. A moderate negative association was noted between saliva cortisol concentrations on some sensation seeking subscales. Self-reported stress levels did not significantly correlate with salivary cortisol concentration.

CONCLUSION: Our findings show that upon academic examinations the cortisol response varies among subjects. A moderate negative association was unveiled by correlating individual cortisol responses with sensation seeking subscales....

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