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Previous studies have found impairing effects of stress hormones on memory retrieval. So far, it is unknown whether these impairments are temporary, persistent throughout time, or whether the strength of the memory trace changes after retrieval because of the effects of stress hormones on memory processes during retrieval. In the present study, delayed cued recall (6 months after initial learning) was compared between male participants who had retrieved previously learned word pairs during stress or a control condition. Retrieval (with or without stress) had taken place either 1 day or 5 weeks after initial encoding. The group that had retrieved words under stress 5 weeks after encoding performed worse on long-term recall than the comparable control group. However, when words were retrieved under stress 1 day after encoding, no long-term effect was found, although performance at 6 months in relation to performance under stress was slightly increased compared to the control group. These results support previous findings in animals that stress may affect memory during reactivation. It further suggests that time intervals between encoding and reactivation may play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, the associations between multiple types of child maltreatment (CM), parent–offspring interactions, and family cohesion were examined in an extended family study. A total of 366 parent–offspring pairs from 137 nuclear families participated. Parents (Mage = 52.8 years, age range: 26.6–88.4 years, 57% female) reported about perpetrated CM and offspring (Mage = 25.7 years, range: 7.5–65.5 years, 58% female) about experienced CM during their childhood. Parent–offspring interactions were observed during a conflict interaction task. Cohesion within the nuclear family was observed during a playful tower building task. Results showed that parents and offspring displayed more aversive behavior in parent–offspring dyads characterized by higher levels of child abuse, but not in dyads characterized by higher levels of child neglect. In addition, less dyadic affective similarity was observed in parent–offspring dyads characterized by higher levels of child neglect, whereas dyadic affective similarity was higher in dyads characterized by higher levels of child abuse. Findings imply that interventions focused on parent–offspring interactions with a somewhat different content for neglectful and abusive families may be efficacious for families in the child welfare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]