Yes, but mainly for experiences that feel emotionally intense or meaningful. In a double-blind Yale University study published in Science Advances, people who took hydrocortisone (a form of the stress hormone cortisol) remembered emotionally significant pictures better the next day than when they took a placebo. Brain scans showed that cortisol made emotion networks more engaged and consistent, made memory networks more tuned to emotional information, and increased coordination between the two.
The researchers stress that the effect is selective: stress does not improve memory for everything, but helps the brain prioritize experiences that carry emotional weight. Lead author Elizabeth Goldfarb suggests that when you are stressed and learning something new, linking it to exciting or strongly felt elements may help it stick.
Image: A technician checks an MRI machine with a patient. National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.