The Influence of Anxiety on Memory after Acute Stress

Abstract

This study investigated individual differences in the influence of anxiety on memory after acute stress. Students were assigned to a stress condition (n=26) or a control condition (n=26). After completing an anxiety scale, the participants were exposed to either a stressor or a non-stressful task. Then they learned neutral, positive, and negative word lists of 10 words each, followed by a 15 min filler task and then a recall test. The results showed that recall performance for positive words was enhanced in the stress condition, but only for the high anxiety group. There was a different pattern of memory bias for the high anxiety group between the stress and control conditions.