Achievement motivation, performance and cardiovascular activity

Cardiovascular measures were obtained from 40 subjects differing in level of achievement motivation during the performance of a vigilance task. Analysis of interbeat interval and heart rate variability indicated that cardiovascular measures obtained from low achievers did not differ significantly from pre-test measures during the performance of the task, while the measures from high achievers did. In addition, the performance of high achievers was significantly better than the performance of low achievers. It is suggested that these findings indicate that high achievers are marked by the effort they expend in performance and that such effort is reflected in the cardiovascular activity of such subjects.