A little stress can be a great motivator, as any student can tell you. A lot of stress, however, can often create more of an obstacle than a benefit. This is true when it comes to many things, including health-promoting behaviors, relationships, and even our memories. Stress can inhibit the way we form and retrieve memories and can affect how our memory works. Show
Fortunately, there is good news here to balance out the bad. Here is what research tells us about the effects of stress on memory. Stress and MemoryStress can affect how memories are formed. When stressed, people have a more difficult time creating short-term memories and turning those short-term memories into long-term memories, meaning that it is more difficult to learn when stressed. Stress can affect the type of memories we form as well. If we are stressed during an event, we may have more difficulty accurately remembering the details of the event later, as the stress we felt colors our perceptions as well as our ability to recall what we perceived at the time. This is part of why eye-witness testimony is so unreliable—people can be absolutely sure they saw something a certain way, but this doesn't mean that they are correct. Memories can also change after they are formed. In fact, every time we retrieve a memory, we color it with our present experience of it, like when we take something off a shelf and then put it back, leaving fingerprints from having handled it again. Research shows that if people are questioned and given misleading information about something they experienced, that information will color their memory and influence what they thought they experienced and that this information (because it is more recent than the event itself) is easier to recall. This is why false memories can be created with well-intentioned lines of questioning. A recent meta-analysis was conducted on 113 stress studies, meaning that researchers examined that many independent studies on stress and memory to determine what the major findings were. There is ample evidence that stress affects memory, and these studies just lent more support for that research:
Improve Your Memory Under StressThere are several things you can do to improve your memory when stressed. Fortunately, these techniques also help manage stress. One of the most important things you can do is to practice personal self-care: get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, and manage stress. Poor sleep, high stress, and other physical problems can affect memory as well as contribute to the stress that impedes memory formation and retrieval. There are other important strategies you can use as well. Here are some research-backed strategies you can use:
A Word From Verywell Stress impacts so much of our lives, and although you can't always eliminate that stress entirely, you can learn to manage it in a way that will help support self-improvement in many areas of your life, including an improved memory. Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Elizabeth Scott, PhD Thanks for your feedback! What are some reasons that would impede the process of memory formation?Poor sleep, high stress, and other physical problems can affect memory as well as contribute to the stress that impedes memory formation and retrieval. There are other important strategies you can use as well.
How many stages can memory formation be broken down to?Stages of Memory Creation
The brain has three types of memory processes: sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What are the 3 stages that occur in the processing of memory?Psychologists distinguish between three necessary stages in the learning and memory process: encoding, storage, and retrieval (Melton, 1963). Encoding is defined as the initial learning of information; storage refers to maintaining information over time; retrieval is the ability to access information when you need it.
What are the stages of memory formation in order?Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory
According to this approach (see Figure 9.4, “Memory Duration”), information begins in sensory memory, moves to short-term memory, and eventually moves to long-term memory. But not all information makes it through all three stages; most of it is forgotten.
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