Figure 5.

Experimental procedure. The subject arrives at 4 p.m. and takes a saliva sample after 20 min (20m). They then complete the incidental study session in which they are shown scenes with objects embedded in them (either negative or neutral) and are asked if they would approach or avoid the scene. Immediately following encoding, subjects either undergo the TSST or the control condition, which involves giving a speech and doing a math task (see Materials and Methods for details). Saliva samples are collected immediately after the stressor/control manipulation followed by saliva samples 15, 30, 45, and 60 min post-stress. The subject leaves the lab and returns at 9 a.m. the following day and completes the recognition test, where they are presented with objects and backgrounds separately and are asked to determine if they are the same, similar, or new objects/backgrounds from what they saw the day before.