Acute stress, like that experienced during a crisis, significantly affects memory and other cognitive functions, influencing a crisis manager’s ability to perform effectively.

Stress and Cognition

Stress arises from perceived environmental demands exceeding one’s capacity to cope. Trait anxiety, a vulnerability factor, can amplify stress response through hypervigilant processing and biased interpretations.

• Mild to moderate stress can facilitate cognitive functions like memory encoding and consolidation.
• However, high-intensity or prolonged stress impairs explicit memory formation and retrieval, as well as complex reasoning skills.
• Long-term stress, especially during childhood, negatively impacts cognitive mechanisms, possibly due to elevated stress hormones damaging the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

Acute Stress and Memory: Memory Formation

Stress generally enhances memory formation, particularly for emotionally charged events, due to processes like heightened attention and increased connectivity within the hippocampus. Yale School of Medicine researchers found that cortisol, a stress hormone, increases connectivity within the hippocampus, improving emotional memory formation.

1. Memory Decontextualization

While stress enhances memory for key features of a stressful event, it may impair memory for contextual details. This can result in fragmented memories and contributes to issues like generalized fear responses in anxiety disorders.

2. Memory Retrieval

Stress can impair memory retrieval, making it harder to recall information learned under stress, particularly explicit verbal memory. This is thought to be mediated by cortisol.

3. Memory Flexibility

Stress can shift memory reliance from flexible, cognitive systems (hippocampus, prefrontal cortex) to rigid, habitual systems (dorsal striatum). This means individuals may rely on ingrained habits rather than adapting their response based on new information.

Implications for Crisis Management: Decision-Making

Acute stress can negatively impact decision-making by interrupting working memory and hindering complex cognitive strategies. This can lead to oversimplified understandings of a crisis, limited options, and restricted analysis.

1. Performance

Stress can reduce cognitive effort and increase avoidance of cognitively demanding tasks, potentially affecting overall performance.

2. Mitigating Stress Effects

Individual Strategies: Stress management techniques like mindfulness, meditation, exercise, and relaxation can help reduce the effects of stress.

3. Organizational Strategies

Crisis managers can benefit from training and preparation to enhance their ability to cope with stress and mitigate its negative impacts on decision-making.

Conclusion

Acute stress experienced during crises has complex effects on memory and cognitive function, which can be detrimental to crisis managers. Understanding these effects and implementing strategies to manage stress and improve cognitive performance is crucial for effective crisis response.

This article is one of  an 8-part series by Robert Chandler.  Check out other blogs on the Human Concerns pillar of the HUB.

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References

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