ArticleAnxiety, stress, and coping2015
Anxiety mediates the effect of acute stress on working memory performance when cortisol levels are high: a moderated mediation analysis.
Article in Anxiety, stress, and coping, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intervention effect of a single exercise session on executive function in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a three-level meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of affective information on working memory: A pair of meta-analytic reviews of behavioral and neuroimaging evidence.Psychological bulletin · 2019Pooled it
- Autonomic stress response of physiotherapy student in the different scenarios of an objective structured clinical examination.BMC medical education · 2022Trial
- Blunted diurnal cortisol slope as a risk marker for 9-year executive function decline: amplification by daily stress and worry severity.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- RDoC cognitive systems and emerging psychopathology: A latent variable analysis of teacher-reported psychosocial difficulties and executive function processes in young children.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Psychophysiological Responses in Soldiers during Close Combat: Implications for Occupational Health and Fitness in Tactical Populations.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- An Examination of Subjective and Objective Measures of Stress in Tactical Populations: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The Insidious Influence of Stress: An Integrated Model of Stress, Executive Control, and Psychopathology.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2023Article
- Embodied strategies for public speaking anxiety: evaluation of the Corp-Oral program.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Learning Stress, Involvement, Academic Concerns, and Mental Health among University Students during a Pandemic: Influence of Fear and Moderation of Self-Efficacy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Effect of Studying a Double Degree in the Psychophysiological Stress Response in the Bachelor's Thesis Defense.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- E-learning readiness and perceived stress among the university students of Bangladesh during COVID-19: a countrywide cross-sectional study.Annals of medicine · 2021Article
- The Effect of Psychology Objective Structured Clinical Examination Scenarios Presentation Order on Students Autonomic Stress Response.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Effect of Experience and Psychophysiological Modification by Combat Stress in Soldier's Memory.Journal of medical systems · 2019Article
- Use of Psychophysiological Portable Devices to Analyse Stress Response in Different Experienced Soldiers.Journal of medical systems · 2018Article
- Use of Portable Digital Devices to Analyze Autonomic Stress Response in Psychology Objective Structured Clinical Examination.Journal of medical systems · 2018Article
- Combat Stress Decreases Memory of Warfighters in Action.Journal of medical systems · 2017Article
- State Anxiety Is Related to Cortisol Response During Cognitive Testing for Older Adults.Gerontology & geriatric medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAnxiety is an aversive emotional state characterized by perceived uncontrollability and hypervigilance to threat that can frequently cause disruptions in higher-order cognitive processes like working memory. The attentional control theory (ACT) predicts that anxiety negatively affects the working memory system.
designThis study tested the association between anxiety and working memory after the addition of stress and measured the glucocorticoid, cortisol. To better understand this relationship, we utilized a moderated mediation model.
methodsUndergraduate students from a public university (N = 103) self-reported their anxiety levels. Participants first completed a short-term memory test. During and after a forehead cold pressor task (stress vs. control procedure) participants completed a working memory test. Salivary cortisol was taken at baseline and after the last working memory test.
resultsOverall, acute stress had no effect on working memory. However, we found that anxiety levels mediated the influence of condition (stressed vs. control) on working memory, but only among those individuals who had high cortisol levels after exposure to acute stress, supporting a moderated mediation model.
conclusionsThese results imply that activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis was necessary for working memory impairment in anxious individuals. These results provide support for the ACT.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.