Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28368148›Full record

SynthesisPsychological bulletin2017

The effects of acute stress on episodic memory: A meta-analysis and integrative review.

Grant S Shields, Matthew A Sazma, Andrew M McCullough, Andrew P Yonelinas

Registry-linked trialOpen access · hybridAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Psychological bulletin, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03353441 (Effects of Microencapsulated Sublingual Glycine), which is not on this map. Cited by 164 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
164citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
14.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03353441 nacompletednot on this map

Effects of Microencapsulated Sublingual Glycine (Bidicin) on Cognitive Performance in Healthy Men After an Acute Stressor - a Randomized, Partly Double-blind Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial

TypeinterventionalSponsorDaacroRan2017 to 2018Enrolled90ConditionsHealthy, Stress, Psychological, Cognitive ImpairmentArmsMicroencapsulated Sublingual Glycine (MSG), Placebo
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

164 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 425 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Prefrontal cortex stimulation prevents stress-induced HPA axis reactivity in people at familial risk of schizophrenia.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025
    Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Hippocampal Mechanisms Support Cortisol-Induced Memory Enhancements.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023
    Trial
  8. Trial
  9. Trial
  10. Trial
  11. Bidirectional association between irritability and executive function in youth from late childhood to early adolescence: Between- and within-person effects.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026
    Article
  12. Spatial memory under emotion: Effects across encoding, maintenance and retrieval.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Demographically adjusted norms for a French-Quebec version of the face-name associative recognition test.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2026
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

104 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Grant S ShieldsDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
Matthew A SazmaDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
Andrew M McCulloughDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
Andrew P YonelinasDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
University of California, Davis · US

Funding

FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF RECOGNITION MEMORYR01MH059352 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS · PI YONELINAS, ANDREW P · 1999 to 2014
$3.9M
Plasticity, Perception, and the Medial Temporal LobesR01EY025999 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI YONELINAS, ANDREW P · 2016 to 2022
$2.3M
NEI NIH HHS R01 EY025999NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH059352
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A growing body of research has indicated that acute stress can critically impact memory. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature, and important questions remain regarding the conditions under which stress effects emerge as well as basic questions about how stress impacts different phases of memory. In this meta-analysis, we examined 113 independent studies in humans with 6,216 participants that explored effects of stress on encoding, postencoding, retrieval, or postreactivation phases of episodic memory. The results indicated that when stress occurred prior to or during encoding it impaired memory, unless both the delay between the stressor and encoding was very short and the study materials were directly related to the stressor, in which case stress improved encoding. In contrast, postencoding stress improved memory unless the stressor occurred in a different physical context than the study materials. When stress occurred just prior to or during retrieval, memory was impaired, and these effects were larger for emotionally valenced materials than neutral materials. Although stress consistently increased cortisol, the magnitude of the cortisol response was not related to the effects of stress on memory. Nonetheless, the effects of stress on memory were generally reduced in magnitude for women taking hormonal contraceptives. These analyses indicate that stress disrupts some episodic memory processes while enhancing others, and that the effects of stress are modulated by a number of critical factors. These results provide important constraints on current theories of stress and memory, and point to new questions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Indexed as

Memory, EpisodicEmotionsFemaleHumansHydrocortisoneMaleMemoryMental RecallStress, PsychologicalHydrocortisone

Identifiers

PMID28368148
PMCPMC5436944
OpenAlexW2604384875

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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 Socratic graph.