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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Brain Cogn. 2018 Oct 26;133:12–23. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.10.005

Table 1. Human Studies of Post-Encoding Stress Effects on Memory.

Studies are arranged by the direction of the primary effects observed, with post-encoding stress studies that showed a benefit on subsequent memory coming first. A visual examination of the table shows that the majority of the studies that did not introduce a context change between encoding and stress found a positive effect of stress, while the majority of studies that had a context change found a negative effect. These findings appear consistent across various types of stressors, delays, and stimuli.

Authors Stressor Stress Delay after Encoding % Male Stimuli Were Stimuli Emotional? Retrieval Test Test Delay Context Change? Cortisol Correlation Effect Notes
Larra et al., (2014) CPT 0 49% Faces Yes Recognition 24 hours No + Effects only for those with large heart rate increase during CPT
Smeets, Otgaar, et al., (2008) CPT 5 min 2% DRM Yes Recall 24 hours No / + Effects only for emotional items, cortisol correlation was for both neutral and emotional items
Felmingham, Tran, et al., (2012) CPT 0 51% Pictures Yes Recall 48 hours No / + Effects only in females for emotional items. Cortisol correlated for emotional items in females, and neutral items in males
Felmingham, Fong, & Bryant (2012) CPT 0 0% Pictures Yes Recall 48 hours No / + Effects only in females with high progesterone levels. Cortisol correlated only with emotional items.
Andreano et al., (2012) CPT 0 0% Story Yes Recall 1 week No / + Effects only for emotional items (both memory and cortisol correlation)
Bryant, McGrath, Felmingham (2013) CPT 0 47% Pictures Yes Recall 48 hours No / + Effects only for emotional items in females. Cortisol correlated only for neutral items in males.
Beckner et al., (2006) TSST 10 min 36% Film No Recognition 48 hours ?* / + Cortisol correlated for verbal information, and trended (p=.07) for overall recognition
Preuss & Wolf (2009) TSST 10 min 100% Pictures Yes Recall & Recognition 24 hours Yes / + Effects only for neutral items on recall test. Cortisol correlated only for neutral items in recall (with a trend for emotional items)
Andreano & Cahill (2006) CPT 0 44% Story No Recall 1 week No ∩ + Effects only in males (both memory and cortisol correlation)
Cahill, Gorski, & Le (2003) CPT 0 29% Pictures Yes Recall 1 week No o + Effects only for emotional items
McCullough & Yonelinas (2013) CPT 10 min 50% Pictures Yes Recall & Recognition 2 hours No o + Effects only in males. Memory also tested at 3 months and showed same effects
Smeets, Sijstermans, et al., (2008) CPT 0 40% Motor Actions No Recognition & Source 24 hours No o +
Nielsen, Ahmed, & Cahill (2014) CPT 0 0% Story Yes Recall 1 week No o + Effects only for emotional items in normally cycling women.
Yonelinas et al., (2011) Skydiving 0–45 min 50% Pictures Yes Recall & Recognition 2 hours Yes o + Effects only for familiarity for neutral items in recognition for males.
Zoladz et al. (2015) CPT 5 min 52% Words Yes Recall & Recognition 24 hours No + Effects only in free recall
Andreano, Arjomandi, & Cahill (2008) CPT 0 0% Story Yes Recall 1 week No / O Cortisol correlated only for females in mid-luteal phase
Nielsen et al., (2013) CPT 0 0% Pictures Yes Recall 1 week No o O Half of the subjects were using hormonal contraceptives
Pardilla-Delgado et al. (2016) TSST 0 39% DRM No Recall & Recognition 24 hours Yes \ − Effects only significant in recognition, but similar pattern in recall. Cortisol correlated with false memory
McCullough et al., 2015 CPT 20 min 100% Pictures Yes Recognition 24 hours Yes ∩ − Effects only for recollection. Cortisol correlated in an inverted U shape for recollection, and linearly for familiarity.
Trammell & Clore (2013) Expt 1 CPT 0 39% Words Yes Recall 48 hours Yes o −
Trammell & Clore (2013) Expt 2 CPT 0 47% Pictures Yes Recall 48 hours Yes o −
Trammell & Clore (2013) Expt 3 CPT 0 46% Pictures Yes Recall 48 hours Yes o −

Note: / represents a positive linear correlation, ∩ is a non-linear correlation, \ is a negative linear correlation, o means it was examined and there no correlations, and a blank cell means the authors did not mention doing any correlation tests. + represents an enhancing effect of stress on memory, o represents a null effect, and - represents an impairing effect.

*

Participants were shown a new room, but prepared speeches in room where encoding took place