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Because performance steadily increases as arousal rises, so being more nervous during the defense always improves speaking and recall.
Because performance is highest at very low arousal and declines as arousal increases, so being calm is always best.
Because performance improves with moderate arousal (enhancing focus) but declines when arousal is too high (hurting memory and decision-making), with a lower optimal arousal for difficult tasks like a thesis defense.
Because arousal and performance are unrelated and any observed bell shape is an artifact of measurement.
