Acute psychosocial stress enhances visuospatial memory in healthy males
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11010957 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robyn Human (University of Cape Town), Kevin GF Thomas (0000-0002-0807-6101, University of Cape Town), Anna Dreyer (University of Cape Town), Anna J Dreyer (0000-0003-1230-3431, University of Arizona), Alyssa R Amod (0000-0001-5190-9597, University of Cape Town), Pedro SA Wolf (University of Cape Town), W Jake Jacobs (University of Cape Town) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 300-313 |
| Publication date | 2013-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South African Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0081-2463 • E-ISSN: 2078-208X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0081246313496913 |
| OpenAlex | W2345380586 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 30 |
Previous research demonstrates that stress can disrupt a number of different cognitive systems, including verbal memory, working memory, and decision-making. Few previous studies have investigated relations between stress and visuospatial information processing, however, and none have examined relations among stress, visuospatial memory performance, and planning/organisation of visuospatial information simultaneously. In total, 38 undergraduate males completed the copy trial of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Those assigned randomly to the Stress group ( n = 19) were then exposed to a laboratory-based psychosocial stressor; the others were exposed to an equivalent control condition. All then completed the delayed recall trial of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Physiological and self-report measures of stress indicated that the induction manipulation was effective. Our predictions that control participants, relative to stressor-exposed participants, (a) take less time to complete the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test recall trial, (b) reproduce the figure more accurately on that trial, and (c) show better planning and more gestalt-based organisational strategies in creating that reproduction were disconfirmed. At recall, those with higher circulating cortisol levels (measured post-stress-induction) completed the drawing more accurately than those with lower circulating cortisol levels. Otherwise stated, the present data indicated that exposure to an acute psychosocial stressor enhanced visuospatial memory performance in healthy males. This data pattern is consistent with a previously proposed inverted U-shaped relationship between cortisol and cognition: Under this proposal, moderate levels of the hormone (as induced by the current manipulation) support optimal performance, whereas extremely high and extremely low levels impair performance
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Fight-or-flight response · Psychiatry · Psychosocial · Recall · Stress (linguistics) · Stressor · Test (biology) · Trier social stress test · Verbal memory · Clinical Psychology · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Psychology · Stress Responses and Cortisol
The Psychobiology of Stress
Memory and the hippocampus
An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function
Dissociating the Role of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal and Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Cognitive Control
The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ – A Tool for Investigating Psychobiological Stress Responses in a Laboratory Setting
Impact of Gender, Menstrual Cycle Phase, and Oral Contraceptives on the Activity of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect
Stress-Induced Impairment of Spatial Navigation in Females
Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2017 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |