(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05)
Freeman, Sarah Austin
Stress, a common feature of everyday life, has been demonstrated in numerous studies to profoundly impact memory function, particularly functions dependent on the hippocampus. The impacts of acute stress on statistical learning are still unknown, as statistical learning has only recently been demonstrated to rely on hippocampal mechanisms. In order to examine the impact of acute stress on statistical learning, as well as investigate individual differences in statistical learning performance, I induced acute stress via shock on healthy young adults during either the encoding or retrieval phase of a previously established statistical learning tasks that is based on implicit learning of temporal community structures. Preliminary results suggest that stress applied during either encoding or retrieval can disrupt statistical learning, though further data collection is needed to generate a more robust model of these effects. A thorough definition of the interactions between stress and statistical learning of temporal relationships has implications for understanding maladaptive effects of stress mechanisms and potential interventions for improving learning and memory – and thus quality of life - for people who suffer from chronic stress disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.