 Stress: - is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human or animal body to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism, whether actual or imagined

 Psychological o Banish from consciousness o (Christianson 1992)  Neurobiological o Stressors release epinephrine o Increase levels of arousal & adrenaline o Increase in cortisol and epinephrine o (Morgan et al 2004)  Physiological o Increased heart rate o Increased skin conductance o Rapid breathing

 Survival School  Military Personnel experienced both high and low stress  Participants asked to view lineup  Unable to ID interrogator

 Central vs. Peripheral details  Lab vs. Real Life  Flashbulb Memories  Repressed and Recovered Memories  Summary: Complex interactions and multiple variables

 Detailed memory in stressful event  More accurate and vivid  Encoded differently  Reinforcements

 Increased level of stress will first result in continuous increase in performance, followed by a catastrophic discontinuous drop in performance. o Yerkes Dodson Law o Negative effect  Cognitive Anxiety and physiological activation decreased in lab

 New, unexpected, potentially threatening  Christianson (1992)  Many speculations

 Over 30 years of data and no conclusions (Deffenbacher et al)  Sleep  Time Variables  Survival camps/military camps  Individual differences

 Morgan, C. A., Hazlett, G., Doran, A., Garrett, S., Hoyt, G., Thomas, P. et al. (2004). Accuracy of eyewitness memory for persons encountered during exposure to highly intense stress. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 27, 265–279.  Christianson, S.-A. (1992). Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 284–309.  Schooler, J.W., Eich, E. Memory for Emotional Events. Memory in Life,  Deffenbacher, K. A., Bornstein, B. H., Penrod. S. D, & McGorty, E. K. (2004). A meta-analytic review of the effects of high stress on eyewitness memory. Law and Human Behavior, 28,