A magnetoresistive memory cell includes a first terminal electrode, a second terminal electrode, and a magnetoresistive layer stack located between the first terminal electrode and the second terminal electrode and including, from one side to another, a reference layer, a dielectric tunnel barrier layer, a free layer, and a material layer having two different states of lattice deformation which have different average in-plane lattice constants and which are configured to apply different in-plane stress. The material layer may be a metal-insulator transition (MIT) material layer that exhibits a phase transition between an insulator state and a metal state.