![Optimal Anxiety Level may Benefit Memory Optimal Anxiety Level may Benefit Memory](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/anxiety-and-heart-disease-in-women.jpg)
"People with high anxiety have to be careful," said Myra Fernandes, Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
"To some degree, there is an optimal level of anxiety that is going to benefit your memory, but we know from other researches that high levels of anxiety can cause people to reach a tipping point, which impacts their memories and performance," Fernandes added.
For the study, the researchers assessed 80 undergraduate students from the University of Waterloo, including 64 females.
Half of the participants were randomly assigned to a deep encoding instruction group while the other half were randomly assigned to a shallow encoding group.
The results showed that individuals with high anxiety levels showed a heightened sensitivity to the influences of emotional context on their memory, with neutral information becoming tainted, or coloured by the emotion with which it was associated during encoding.
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Source-IANS