The effects of stress and oral contraceptive use on emotional memory retrieval in young women

Research studies have demonstrated that psychosocial stress impairs emotional memory retrieval in young men. The effect of psychosocial stress on emotional memory retrieval in young women has not yet been investigated, although cortisol administration has been found to impair memory retrieval for negative stimuli in women. A recent study by Kuhlmann and Wolf (2005) found that oral contraceptive (OC) users do not experience the typical declines in verbal emotional memory retrieval that occur following cortisol administration. The goals of this study were (1) to investigate whether psychosocial stress impairs emotional memory retrieval in young women, and (2) to examine whether OC use protects against such stress-induced retrieval deficits in emotional memory. Twenty OC users and 20 Nonusers completed a psychosocial stress paradigm and a non-stressful control task during Days 22-24 of their menstrual cycle. Immediately following each condition, participants were asked to recall positive, negative, and neutral word pairs learned 24 hours earlier. As predicted, psychosocial stress impaired retrieval of negatively valent words in young women. Contrary to predictions, OC use did not protect women from this impairment in retrieval after stress. These findings support the hypothesis that the strength and accuracy of emotional memories can be weakened by stress at the time of recall.