Compromised verbal episodic memory with intact visual and procedural memory during pregnancy.

This study investigated episodic and procedural memory performance in early and late pregnancy. Twenty-six women in the third trimester of pregnancy, 20 women in the first trimester of pregnancy, and 24 nonpregnant controls were administered a battery of verbal and visual episodic memory tasks and two procedural memory tasks. Results indicated that compared to controls, both pregnant groups had reduced scores on immediate and delayed verbal episodic memory tasks, but were unimpaired on visual and procedural memory tasks. Verbal memory differences could not be accounted for by mood state or attention; however, progesterone level accounted for a small amount of the variation. Although memory differences were minor, the perception of memory problems may have implications for everyday living for pregnant women.

The effect of state worry and trait anxiety on working memory processes in a normal sample.

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the effects of trait anxiety and state worry on working memory performance in a normal sample. Phase one investigated the effects of trait anxiety and state worry on the capacity of specific working memory components. Phase two investigated the validity of Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) Processing Efficiency Theory of worry. METHOD: Sixty adult participants (40 females and 20 males with a mean age of 26 years) were assigned to a 2 (trait anxiety: Low vs. high)x2 (state worry: Low vs. high) between-subjects design. RESULTS: Contrary to prediction, worry did not lead to a decrement in performance on verbal working memory tasks but unexpectedly enhanced performance on visual tasks in participants with low trait anxiety (LTA). The results were also in opposition to expectations for Phase two. Individuals in the conditions of high trait anxiety and/or high state worry (LTA/HW, HTA/LW, and HTA/HW) displayed shorter response latencies than individuals in the LTA and low state worry (LTA/LW) condition on both verbal and spatial working memory (i.e., N-back) tasks. CONCLUSION: Although non-pathological worry is predominantly a verbal-linguistic activity, it may also be complemented by the processing of visual imagery which facilitates problem-solving and adaptive functions.