Stress May Make Negative Experiences Harder to Recall
October 1st, 2009
If you’ve ever experienced difficulty in a memory-intensive task while feeling stressed or being distracted, you’ve understood the basic impetus for investigation in a study recently conducted at Bangor University in the UK. The study had participants play basic gambling games based on a series of faces that were tied to certain outcomes. When later given the task of recognizing the faces, some participants were distracted while others were not. Those who were distracted exhibited a significantly lower ability to recognize faces associated with negative game outcomes. The results suggest that distractions may lead us to concentrate more heavily on past rewards than on past threats or failures.
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Comments
This kind of study could be especially helpful in the law enforcement field. Think about how stressed victims of violent crimes must feel and then be expected to go and make accurate identifications of their attackers. If stress plays a factor in how well we remember things it is no wonder that there are many who may end up falsely accused because of something that is really not the fault of the victim at all, or conversely have the right attacker set free because an accurate i.d. cannot be made at that time. maybe giving the victim some counseling before they are expected to undergo another stressful event like this would help to alleviate some of that stress and help them to make better identifications and statements.
It is very true that distractions do lead to poorer performance in general and this is best exhibited in a student’s life… if there is any kind of distraction, then the grades suffer!
My mind gets to racing when I am distracted and I literally cannot think straight.
Stress does not let any of us to perform to our potential is well-known. And now that it has been proved by a study, we should know that we should try and keep it at bay. Stress leads to many kinds of disorder and is best avoided in times of work.
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