Stress, Physiological Reactivity, and Memory Across Development

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Numerous important theoretical and practical questions exist concerning precisely how stress affects children's memory. Practically, questions focus on whether stress interferes with children's learning in educational situations, whether stress affects the accuracy of children's eyewitness reports, and whether stress influences children's reporting of distressing experiences in clinical settings. Theoretically, questions focus on which specific biological and psychological mechanisms link emotion and cognitive processes in childhood. Although prior studies have examined the effects of stress on children's memory, results have been inconsistent, in part because of large variations in the types of to-be-remembered events studied, in how stress was measured, and in the ages of children included. Studies have also not directly compared children and adolescents, despite the potential for considerable developmental change in the effects of stress on memory. The current studies seek to remedy these confounds. The overarching goals are first to identify developmental changes in the relations between stress and memory, and second to examine how stress at encoding (i.e., during a to-be-remember event) and retrieval (i.e., during an interview) independently and jointly affect children's and adolescents' memory.In the PI's planned studies, male and female participants, ages 6 through 20, will experience a mildly stressful laboratory event, and a few weeks later, complete a memory test about that event. Measures of physiological and behavioral stress responses will be collected, both during the to-be-remembered event and during the memory interview. The wide age range included, combined with the comprehensive assessment of stress at encoding and retrieval, will allow for a much more complex evaluation of the associations between stress and memory than has heretofore been possible. Moreover, by integrating physiological and behavioral measures of stress, clearer insight into the mechanisms linking stress and memory can be gained. Overall, knowledge derived from the studies will provide much-needed answers to questions about when and how stress affects memory across development.