The influence of a given event on long-term memory formation of another one has been a relevant topic of study in the neuroscience field in recent years. Students at school learn contents which are usually tested in exam format. However, exam elevates the arousal state of the students acting as a mild stressor that could influence another memory formation ongoing process. Thus, in this study we examine in high school students the effect of exams on long-term retention of unrelated information, learned at different times before or after the exams. Our results show that exams are not innocuous and that they could improve or reduce the retention of temporarily associated content. These effects did not show gender differences. Our findings should alert teachers about the side effects of exams on the learning of other content within the same school day.

近年来，特定事件对另一个事件的长期记忆形成的影响一直是神经科学领域的相关研究课题。学生在学校学习的内容通常以考试形式进行测试。然而，考试会提高学生的唤醒状态，作为一种轻微的压力源，可能会影响另一个正在进行的记忆形成过程。因此，在这项研究中，我们研究了高中生考试对在考试前后不同时间学到的不相关信息的长期保留的影响。我们的结果表明，考试并非无害，它们可以改善或减少临时相关内容的保留。这些影响并未显示出性别差异。我们的研究结果应该提醒教师注意考试对同一教学日内其他内容学习的副作用。