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Acute psychosocial stress and children's memory
Danielle M J de Veld1, J Marianne Riksen-Walraven, Carolina de Weerth
1Department of Developmental Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen , Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
|April 29, 2014
Summary
Stress impacts children's working memory (WM) and delayed retrieval (DR). Cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) show complex relationships with memory performance under stress.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- Stress can affect cognitive functions, including memory.
- Understanding the relationship between physiological stress responses and memory performance in children is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how stress exposure affects children's working memory (WM) and delayed retrieval (DR) performance.
- To investigate the association between physiological stress markers (salivary alpha-amylase [sAA] and cortisol) and cognitive performance under stress.
Main Methods:
- 158 children performed WM and DR tasks under control and stress conditions.
- Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol levels were measured during the stress challenge.
- Statistical analyses explored performance changes and correlations between physiological responses and memory.
Main Results:
- Working memory backward performance significantly declined after stress exposure.
- Cortisol responses correlated with WM forward performance (higher cortisol, better performance).
- Delayed retrieval showed an inverted U-shaped relationship with cortisol and a cortisol × sAA interaction, indicating optimal performance at high or low physiological responses.
Conclusions:
- Stress differentially impacts various memory components in children.
- Complex, non-linear relationships exist between physiological stress markers and memory performance.
- Future research should consider curvilinear and interaction effects when examining stress and memory.
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