The Impact of Emotion on Memory

Overview

Objectives/Goals Arousal-biased competition theory states that emotional arousal has an enhancing effect on memory for high priority information. However, there is a lack of understanding on how emotional arousal affects various processes of memory differentially. Pattern separation is a process of memory that allows people to identify similar information as similar, but not the same. Previous research has suggested that emotional arousal enhances pattern separation abilities, but there has been no indication as to whether that interaction occurs during encoding or retrieval. Here, we examined the differential effects of emotional arousal at encoding and at retrieval on pattern separation abilities. Methods/Materials Healthy younger adults viewed paired slideshows of images. The first slideshow required them to identify images as belonging indoors or outdoors and served as the encoding procedure. The second slideshow required them to identify images as either "new," "similar," or "same." Emotionally arousing images were added to either the encoding slideshow, the retrieval slideshow, or neither. Results Accuracy in identifying similar images increased for blocks that included emotional arousal at encoding compared to blocks that did not include emotional arousal. However, misidentification of similar images decreased in blocks that included emotional arousal at retrieval compared to blocks that did not include emotional arousal. Conclusions/Discussion Emotional arousal differentially influenced the encoding and retrieval processes.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry S0416

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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