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Abstract:
Abstract: This is the third in a series of studies designed
to examine the relationship between stress, glucocorticoids and
hippocampal-mediated learning in human children. In each study, we
used a dry analog of the Morris water maze, in which children
searched for their parent, to test the hypothesis that moderate
stress-related elevations in cortisol would facilitate learning. In
our previous studies, higher cortisol was associated with better
performance in the analog maze. In the present study, at this
writing, twelve of the expected thirty 24 to 32 month-olds have
been seen. Children are randomly assigned to a stress (15-minute
separation from parent designed to moderately increase cortisol) or
control condition. Saliva is collected to measure cortisol.
Children search for their parents in the dry maze during five
learning trials and one probe trial. Learning is operationalized in
two ways; (1) the difference in time to reach the parent between
trial 1and trial 2; and (2) time spent in the correct quadrant
during the probe trial. To date, analyses indicate no difference
between the stress and control groups on either learning measure,
although cortisol data will not be available until the end of the
study. However, significant gender differences are already
apparent. Females (n = 6) were better than males on both of our
measures of learning.
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