It has been proposed that there is an association between neuroticism, as measured by the EPQ, and a person's ability to cope with the problems of environmental stress while performing cognitive tasks. Each of 50 participants completed the EPQ and then went on to do two one-hour sessions of mental arithmetic. Each test was completed on a different day. Thus, on the first day they just filled in the EPQ. On the second day they solved mental arithmetic problems under normal conditions. On the third day they solved arithmetic problems under conditions of extreme temperature and noise; in each case the score abstracted was the total number of problems solved in the one hour period.