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The Impact of Mental Health Symptoms on Relational Memory Performance

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Jessica Zaffino¹ (), Malcolm Binns^1,2, Jennifer D. Ryan^1,2; ¹University of Toronto, ²Rotman Research Institute; Baycrest Academy for Research and Education

Introduction: Broad memory challenges arise for people with clinically diagnosed mental health disorders, in part due to changes in hippocampal structure and/or function. However, individuals with mental health symptoms often show memory impairments, even when their symptoms do not reach the level of a formal clinical diagnosis. Building on this, the present study examined how mental health symptoms influence performance on two relational memory tasks that are known to be critically dependent on hippocampal function. Methods: Participants from across the adult lifespan completed a transverse patterning task (n=622) for which they learned directional relations among abstract objects. In a separate experiment, participants (n=295) completed a transitivity task in which they learned the relations between pairs of objects and subsequently made inferences across those pairs. All participants completed the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42). Logistic regressions examined performance on each task, including interactions between DASS subscales, with age and sex as covariates, and test accuracy as the outcome. Results: Individuals with greater symptoms of anxiety performed less accurately on both relational tasks. Greater symptoms of depression were associated with accuracy declines on both tasks, but only when participants also reported greater stress levels. Older participants performed less accurately on both tasks, with even greater deficits on the transitivity task for those experiencing stress and depression. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that even sub-clinical levels of depression, anxiety, and stress can negatively impact hippocampal-dependent memory, underscoring the importance of early mental health support for maintaining cognitive and brain health across the lifespan.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other