DO THE BENEFITS OF RETRIEVAL PRACTICE REMAIN UNDER STRESS?

Abstract

Stress is a ubiquitous experience in the student population. This is concerning, as stress impairs memory functioning. Since memory functioning largely determines academic success, stress prevents students from fulfilling their academic potential. But this impairing effect of stress may not always emerge. Recent research has shown that stress does not impair memory performance if students learn information by practicing retrieval. This has been coined as an inoculation effect. Though surprising, this may simply result from automatizing the retrieval process. This study sought to replicate this finding using ecologically valid materials and test whether the inoculation effect occurred with multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Participants learnt a passage by either restudying it or by practicing retrieval. They returned two days later and completed the Trier Social Stress Test or a control version. They then freely recalled the passage and completed the MCQs. Although the results are preliminary, the trends in the data indicate that stress had no effect on free recall performance or MCQ performance when information was learnt by practicing retrieval. This result is discussed along with this study’s limitations. Post hoc analyses are also discussed with future research directions. Altogether, this study adds to a longstanding literature reporting negative effects of stress on cognition and adds to a new literature that investigates ways to nullify effects of stress on memory performance.