Increases in cortisol are positively associated with gains in encoding and maintenance working memory performance in young men

Figures & data

Figure 1. Procedure used in the Encoding condition (lasting 1500 ms) and the Encoding During Maintenance condition (entire 2500 ms). In the Encoding During Maintenance condition, participants were tested on the two-item array on 50% of the trials to measure maintenance, and the three-item array on 50% of the trials to measure encoding. This figure is redrawn from Woodman & Vogel (2005).

Table 1. Mean values of all stress measures at T1 and T2 assessments.

	T1	T2
Cortisol (µg/dL)	0.158 (SEM = 0.01)	0.233 (SEM = 0.02)**
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	121 (SEM = 2.0)	122 (SEM = 2.1)
Diastolic blood pressure	75 (SEM = 1.5)	78 (SEM = 1.7)*
Pulse (beats/min, bpm)	71 (SEM = 1.6)	67 (SEM = 1.6)**
Anger	0.41 (SEM D = 0.21)	1.09 (SEM = 0.34)*
Anxiousness	2.24 (SEM = 0.45)	3.12 (SEM = 0.49)^m
Insecurity	0.70 (SEM = 0.28)	1.76 (SEM = 0.47)**
Nervousness	1.73 (SEM = 0.41)	2.00 (SEM = 0.46)

Raw salivary cortisol concentrations rounded to three decimal places. All other physiological measures rounded to nearest whole number. Subjective measures are on a scale from 1–10. SEM = Standard Error of the Mean. T1 and T2 measures were compared using paired t-tests. N = 33. **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, ^mp < 0.10.

Figure 2. Participants’ change in performance from T1 to T2 in the Encoding condition as a function of their change in log₁₀ salivary cortisol concentration between T1 and T2. R² is reported (n = 33), p = 0.065.

Figure 3. Participants’ change in performance from T1 to T2 in the Encoding During Maintenance condition as a function of their change in log₁₀ salivary cortisol concentration between T1 and T2. R² is reported (n = 33), p = 0.003.

Figure 4. Participants’ change in performance from T1 to T2 in the Maintenance condition as a function of their change in log₁₀ salivary cortisol concentration between T1 and T2. R² is reported (n = 33), p = 0.007.

Woodman GF, Vogel EK. (2005). Fractionating working memory: consolidation and maintenance are independent processes. Psychol Sci 16(2):106–11

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