Abstract
Choking is a phenomenon in which cognitive control is interfered with by stress caused by time restriction or emotional arousal (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001). As a method to generate choking in the laboratory, a method to change the rhythm of stimulus intervals during a cognitive task has been proposed ( Suto et al., 2020). Although the occurrence of choking can be confirmed by subjective evaluation, a more objective index is desired. In this study, we investigated whether the pupillary responses could be employed as an objective index using an inexpensive eye tracking device (Gazepoint GP3) that has appeared in recent years. Twelve participants were subjected to the AX-CPT70, and pupillary responses (60 Hz) were measured in the normal rhythm condition (ISI=5000 ms) and in the random rhythm condition (ISI=5000 ms and 500 ms half randomly). Analysis of the mean size of pupil diameter for ISI (between 500 ms) showed that pupil diameter was significantly increased in the random rhythm condition.These results suggest that the random-rhythm procedure increases cognitive load and that the pupil response measured with an inexpensive eye tracking device may be an indicator of the occurrence of choking.
https://ror.org/01w6wtk13 
