Vas Rishi, Phillips Taylor, Ferguson Lorena A, Harikumar Amritha, Castro Madelyn, Leal Stephanie L
Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Learn Mem. 2024 Dec 16;31(12). doi: 10.1101/lm.053989.124. Print 2024 Dec.
Stress can have profound impacts on memory. However, the directionality of stress effects on memory varies widely across studies, some showing enhancement while others showing impairment. This variability has been attributed to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which proposes a U-shaped pattern such that too little or too much stress may be associated with cognitive dysfunction. The impact of stress on memory may also depend on what aspects of memory are being measured (e.g., emotional content, gist vs. detail) and how stress is measured (e.g., physiological measures, self-report). Here, we aimed to examine how self-reported perceived stress in the current moment was associated with memory performance. We used an emotional memory task designed to tap into potential gist versus detail trade-offs of stress impacting memory (e.g., target recognition, lure discrimination). Participants (ages 18-35) reported their current level of perceived stress. We replicated prior work showing impaired emotional relative to neutral lure discrimination in young adults in support of a gist versus detail trade-off in emotional memory. However, those with low and high current perceived stress showed better emotional lure discrimination compared to those with moderate current perceived stress. These results are in line with the Yerkes-Dodson Law but suggest that the directionality of the impact of stress on memory may depend on the type of memory measured. Low and high current perceived stress was associated with greater detailed memory, especially for emotional information, which may be maladaptive given gist vs. detail trade-offs in emotional memory.
压力会对记忆产生深远影响。然而，压力对记忆影响的方向性在不同研究中差异很大，有些研究显示记忆增强，而另一些则显示记忆受损。这种变异性归因于耶基斯 - 多德森定律，该定律提出了一种U形模式，即压力过小或过大都可能与认知功能障碍有关。压力对记忆的影响还可能取决于所测量的记忆方面（例如，情感内容、主旨与细节）以及压力的测量方式（例如，生理测量、自我报告）。在此，我们旨在研究当下自我报告的感知压力如何与记忆表现相关联。我们使用了一项情感记忆任务，旨在探究压力影响记忆时潜在的主旨与细节权衡（例如，目标识别、诱饵辨别）。参与者（年龄在18 - 35岁之间）报告了他们当前的感知压力水平。我们重复了之前的研究结果，即与中性诱饵辨别相比，年轻人的情感诱饵辨别能力受损，这支持了情感记忆中的主旨与细节权衡。然而，当前感知压力低和高的参与者与当前感知压力中等的参与者相比，表现出更好的情感诱饵辨别能力。这些结果与耶基斯 - 多德森定律一致，但表明压力对记忆影响的方向性可能取决于所测量的记忆类型。当前感知压力低和高与更详细的记忆相关，特别是对于情感信息，鉴于情感记忆中的主旨与细节权衡，这可能是适应不良的。
