Types Of External Source Monitoring

According to research, learning is negatively affected by cortisol. Cortisol is introduced when stress enters the system. Cortisol is a hindrance to learning because it directly prevents any new concepts to sink into the brain. Our brain reacts this way because the brain runs at a high speed. Therefore, Bergland states that,

The results of the studied showed that stress induced SP participants recalled fewer items on test 2 than non-stressed SP participants, whereas there was not a difference in the RP group. Memory impairment caused by stress only resulted in the SP group. In addition, the stressed RP participants showed the performed equally to the non-stressed RP implying that stress has no affect on memory when retrieval practice is used to learn material. The researchers also found that stress had no immediate effect on memory for either group of

Cortisol has been shown to have the greatest effect on the health of a person. Cortisol is a hormone released in stressful situations. Cortisol levels in young children have been shown to increase when the child is left in the care of someone they are unfamiliar with and when they attempt to interact or play with large groups of other children. (Turvett 2008) Lack of control in a situation is associated with a lack of recovery of cortisol, which can lead to a range of negative health effects. (Ursin 2004)

Cortisol has a main function, this is to restore homeostasis following exposure to stress (Randall’12, 2011), the effects of cortisol are felt over the entire body and “impact several homeostatic mechanisms. While cortisol’s primary targets are metabolic, it also affects ion transport, the immune response, and even memory” (Randall’12, 2011). Stress even over relatively short periods and in different contexts, “tend to produce similar results: prolonged healing times, reduction in ability to cope with vaccinations, and heightened vulnerability to viral infection. The long-term effects of constant cortisol exposure associated with chronic stress produces further symptoms, including impaired cognition, decreased thyroid function, and accumulation

Bloise, S.M. Johnson, M.K. (2007). Memory for emotional and neutral information: Gender and individual differences in emotional sensitivity. Memory. 15 (2), pp.192-204.

Our behaviour and emotion are determined by two hormones, testosterone and cortisol. Testosterone determines dominance and assertiveness, while cortisol controls the reactivity to stress. Research done by Cuddy and her team showed that higher levels of testosterone leads to higher self-confidence, whereas lower levels of cortisol leads to a fall in anxiety and an improved de-stress ability (Cuddy, Wilmuth & Carney, 2012). Therefore, research result has established the theory that human can handle stress better if we were to be able to control the hormone level.

Emotional responses have been tied to neurotransmitter activation in the development of memories. Through the use of arousal theory (Christianson, 1992), it is believed that stronger emotions cause the development of strong memories, while weaker emotions will form weak memories. It was expanded upon earlier that the amygdala is the area of the brain responsible for emotions that we feel. Arousal theory is backed up by the amygdala’s role in memory. When an emotional event occurs, neurotransmitters will be released. The strength of the emotional event determines the amount of neurotransmitters released, with strong events leading to more to be released and weak events leading to less being released. For example, in the case of a stressful event the brain will release more glutamate. This often leads to a stronger memory of the stressful event and usually results in better memory encoding than that of a non-emotional event (McGaugh, 2003).

Stress is a very popular concept about which there is still a lot of controversy. '' Stress as an adaptive response, moderated by individual differences, that is a consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands on a person '' (Ivancevich, page 214). We say that a person is subjected to a stress situation when he has to face environmental demands that exceed his resources, so that the subject perceives that he cannot give them an effective response, which causes an increase in the activation of the organism. However, stress is not always a bad thing, since in many cases the stress response puts a number of exceptional resources at the disposal of the person, fostering a better perception of the situation, a better search for solutions and a better selection of answers to deal with the situation that has caused it.

In the current research proposal, the general goal is to examine the extent to which cortisol levels affect working memory throughout pregnancy. An additional, more specific goal is to assess whether individuals with high attentional control may be able to compensate for working memory deficiencies more adaptively than those with low attentional control.

Memory is the process in which information is encoded, retained, and recalled in our brain. An individuals’ memory can be affected by several different factors such as environmental factors, social factors and even psychological factors. An example of a psychological factor is one’s mental health. Mental health is a state of emotional, social, and psychological satisfaction in which individuals are able to cope with the stresses of life, interact with others and make decisions. Past studies have found correlations between mental health and memory. According to Sternberg and Jarvik (1976), depression is associated with an impairment of short-term memory. Their study found that with the improvement of an individuals’ depressive state, there is an improvement in their short-term memory. With the influence mental health has on short-term memory, memory assessments can be administered to individuals with differing mental states to further support or challenge the predetermined relationship.

When presented with a list of words women will remember more words from the emotional list than the neutral word list when compared to men.

They tested this theory at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, on ninety-five eligible male and female participants ranging from eighteen to thirty-six years old using various methodologies. The participants required to complete three in-person lab visits, participated in different activities each visit. On the first visit, they completed a questionnaire followed by a twenty-five-minute activity, that consisted of resting, stretching or cycling. After completion, participants then undergo a computerized test, which includes: the N-back-a memory test using twenty various trials, an Internal Shift Task- a test which measures two components of attentional control, set-shifting and updating, and finally the stressor which led participants through two stressful tasks. After this process, they complete a ten-minute survey,

There has been research on performance and stress from the work of psychologists Robert Yerkes and J.D. Dodson. In 1908, they came up with the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which says performance increases as pressure increases (pp. 1). They said stress-related hormones actually improve concentration. The improvement in concentration

The study firstly involved administrating a screening questionnaire to a large sample. Following this, the study followed a cross-sectional experimental design measuring cardiovascular reactivity to acute mental stress in two groups; those who scored high and those who scored low in childhood adversity. All participants were tested in the afternoon, starting at either 1400h or 1600h to ensure for a more stable cortisol reading and were tested in the same laboratory in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. The experiment lasted approximately 60 minutes in total and consisted of four main periods: a 10-minute adaptation, 10-minute baseline, 10-minute stress task and

Comparing the cognitive capability between males and females has proliferated in scientific research. Throughout the years, men and women have exhibited multiple differences in behavioral, hormonal, and cognitive development. For this reason, many have questioned, disputed, and compared the brain capacity and productivity of each gender such as memory performance. In particular, known studies on memory performance have demonstrated the distinct cognitive capabilities between both sexes. Scientific studies conducted in this topic revealed stimulating results, which is that there is a significant difference on memory performances between genders. Studies showed that female subjects perform far superior in visual imagery tests than male subjects, thus, revealing that women are cognitively advantaged in pictorial memory (Doreen, 1992; Marks, 1973).