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Yerkes-Dodson Principle

Meaning

The Yerkes-Dodson Principle describes an empirical relationship between arousal and performance, postulating that an individual’s performance on a task increases with physiological or mental arousal up to an optimal point, after which further increases in arousal lead to a decline. This creates an inverted U-shaped curve, indicating that there is an ideal level of activation for any given activity, where performance is maximized.