Maeve McClure¹, Elissa Aminoff¹; ¹Fordham University

Episodic memories can be impacted by a variety of factors, one being stress. Stress can facilitate memory systems in the brain, specifically increasing memory for unpleasant scenes. Current research regarding stress and memory has largely been conducted without considering individual responses to the valence of stimuli as well as focusing on objective stress (e.g. cortisol levels). This study aimed to address the relationship between perceived stress and memory, as well as perception of valence. Participants briefly viewed 120 images of valenced scene stimuli, and made simple judgments about the scenes. This was followed by a recognition memory task in which participants were asked if the scene was old or new. Following the scene stimuli encoding and recognition task, participants rated the valence of stimuli and completed the Perceived Stress Scale. There was a significant effect of valence at encoding, with accuracy for negative images being significantly worse than positive and neutral images, and with reaction time for negative images being significantly higher than for positive and neutral images. There was also a significant effect of valence on memory, with participants recognizing significantly fewer neutral images than positive and negative images. The critical question was how does perceived stress modulate valenced scene processing? A significant negative correlation was found between perceived stress and accuracy for negative images at encoding, and a statistically significant positive correlation was found between perceived stress and reaction time for negative images at encoding. This indicates that perceived stress modulated how individuals viewed negative images. Together, using ratings from individuals we found an effect of valence at encoding and memory, and this was modulated by perceived stress.