ABSTRACT

In a preregistered experiment, we examined the efficacy of arousal reappraisal as an intervention for reducing the negative effects of stress at retrieval on memory. Participants (N = 177) were semi-randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a Stress-intervention condition, a Stress-placebo condition, and a No-stress-placebo control condition. Participants viewed four images of complex, mildly negatively valenced scenes. One day later, they received an arousal reappraisal intervention or placebo before exposure to a laboratory stressor (or a control version for the No-stress condition). Participants were then tested on their memory of the images using a free recall instruction and multiple-choice recognition questions. As expected, negative affect and blood pressure increased for the stress conditions but not the control condition. Contrary to our hypotheses, memory performance did not statistically significant differ between the Stress-placebo condition and the No-stress-placebo control condition, indicating a lack of negative effects of acute retrieval stress on memory. Furthermore, we also found no statistically significant differences between the Stress-intervention condition and Stress-placebo condition in terms of memory performance, suggesting that the intervention did not assist with enhancing memory. We integrate interpretations of the findings from this study with a discussion of avenues for future research in this area.

摘要

在一项预先注册的实验中，我们检查了唤醒重新评估作为减少检索压力对记忆的负面影响的干预措施的功效。参与者 ( N = 177) 被半随机分配到以下三个条件之一：压力干预条件、压力安慰剂条件和无压力安慰剂对照条件。参与者观看了四张复杂的、带有轻微负面影响的场景的图像。一天后，他们在暴露于实验室压力源（或无压力条件的对照版本）之前接受了唤醒重新评估干预或安慰剂。然后使用免费回忆指令和多项选择识别问题测试参与者对图像的记忆。正如预期的那样，压力条件下的负面影响和血压增加，但控制条件下没有。与我们的假设相反，压力安慰剂条件和无压力安慰剂对照条件之间的记忆性能没有统计学显着差异，表明急性提取压力对记忆力没有负面影响。此外，我们还发现压力干预条件和压力安慰剂条件在记忆性能方面没有统计学上的显着差异，表明干预没有帮助增强记忆。我们将对该研究结果的解释与对该领域未来研究途径的讨论相结合。