Emotional arousal and recognition memory are differentially reflected in pupil diameter responses during emotional memory for negative events in younger and older adults

Hämmerer, Dorothea; Hopkins, Alexandra; Betts, Matthew J.; Maaß, Anne; Dolan, Raymond J.; Düzel, Emrah

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.06.021

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…As processing salient events (outcomes) in our task happened within a task context that required a focus on outcomes, we cannot address these 2 aspects separately in this study. Indeed, pupillometric responses of comparable strength in younger and older adults are not unprecedented in feedback-based learning tasks (Hämmerer et al., 2017). In the context of our task, this suggests that the strength of attentional focus on outcome evaluation might have been comparable in younger and older adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Older adults fail to form stable task representations during model-based reversal inference

Hämmerer

Schwartenbeck

Gallagher

et al. 2019

Neurobiology of Aging

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Older adults struggle in dealing with changeable and uncertain environments across several cognitive domains. This has been attributed to difficulties in forming adequate task representations that help navigate uncertain environments. Here, we investigate how, in older adults, inadequate task representations impact on model-based reversal learning. We combined computational modeling and pupillometry during a novel model-based reversal learning task, which allowed us to isolate the relevance of task representations at feedback evaluation. We find that older adults overestimate the changeability of task states and consequently are less able to converge on unequivocal task representations through learning. Pupillometric measures and behavioral data show that these unreliable task representations in older adults manifest as a reduced ability to focus on feedback that is relevant for updating task representations, and as a reduced metacognitive awareness in the accuracy of their actions. Instead, the data suggested older adults' choice behavior was more consistent with a guidance by uninformative feedback properties such as outcome valence. Our study highlights that an inability to form adequate task representations may be a crucial factor underlying older adults' impaired model-based inference.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Older adults fail to form stable task representations during model-based reversal inference

Hämmerer

Schwartenbeck

Gallagher

et al. 2019

Neurobiology of Aging

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“…As hypothesized, we found a significant main effect of pictures’ valence indicating that memory performance improved with increasing unpleasantness (hits and overall performance). This finding is in line with and extends the results of studies using different paradigms and stimuli (Bless, Hamilton & Mackie, ; Charles et al ., ; Dreben, Fiske & Hastle, ; Grady, Hongwanishkul, Keightley, Lee & Hasher, ; Grühn et al ., ; Hämmerer et al ., ; Ohira et al ., ; Pratto & John, ; Robinson‐Riegler & Winton, ; Skowronski & Carlston, ; but see Chainay, Michael, Vert‐pré, Landré & Plasson, ). One way to interpret these findings is through the principle of negativity bias according to which “bad is stronger than good” across a broad range of psychological phenomena (Baumeister et al ., ; Rozin & Royzman, ; see Introduction).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Fifth, in future studies it would appear important to control in the analyses for potential differences in time spent on the selfpaced recognition task. Sixth, the role of physiological responses at stimulus encoding and recognition for memory performance would be another issue to investigate (Gavazzeni, Anderson, B€ ackman, Wiens & Fischer, 2012;H€ ammerer et al, 2017). Finally, interpretation of the results regarding age-related vs. cohort effects requires caution because of the cross-sectional study design.…”

Section: Limitations and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Support for the arousal hypothesis is strong for free recall of affective material (e.g., Bradley, Greenwald, Petry & Lang, ; Bradley & Lang, ; Dolcos, LaBar & Cabeza, , ; Palomba, Angrilli & Mini, ) but mixed for recognition memory (Ohira, Winton & Oyama, ; Versace, Bradley & Lang, ). The valence hypothesis has received support from studies reporting that negative words are recognized more successfully than positive words (Ohira et al ., ; Robinson‐Riegler & Winton, ) and studies finding that the proportion of correctly recognized unpleasant pictures is greater than pleasant pictures of similar arousal (Charles et al ., ; Grühn et al ., ; Hämmerer, Hopkins, Betts, Maass, Dolan & Duzel, ). To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that have tested simultaneously the contributions of valence and arousal to recognition memory for affective pictures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recognizing images: The role of motivational significance, complexity, social content, age, and gender

Gomez

Gunten

Danuser

2019

Scandinavian J Psychology

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Memory for affective events plays an important role in determining people’s behavior and well‐being. Its determinants are far from being completely understood. We investigated how recognition memory for affective pictures depends on pictures’ motivational significance (valence and arousal), complexity (figure‐ground compositions vs. scenes), and social content (pictures with people vs. without people) and on observers’ age and gender. Younger, middle‐aged, and older adults viewed 84 pictures depicting real‐life situations. After a break, the participants viewed 72 pictures, half of which had been viewed previously and half of which were novel, and were asked to endorse whether each picture was novel or had been presented previously. Hits, false alarms, and overall performance (discrimination accuracy) were our dependent variables. The main findings were that, across participants, recognition memory was better for unpleasant than pleasant pictures and for pictures depicting people than pictures without people. Low‐arousal pictures were more accurately recognized than high‐arousal pictures, and this effect was significantly larger among middle‐aged and older adults than younger adults. Recognition memory worsened across adulthood, and this decline was steeper among men than women. Middle‐aged and older women outperformed their male counterparts. This study suggests that how well we are able to successfully discriminate previously seen pictorial stimuli from novel stimuli depends on several pictures’ properties related to their motivational significance and content, and on observer’s age and gender.

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“…La primera de las hipótesis planteadas fue que la información con contenido emocional sería mayormente recordada que la neutra. Efectivamente, las imágenes emocionales fueron calificadas como más activantes que las neutras y este nivel de emocionalidad/activación repercutió en el recuerdo, ya que las imágenes emocionales fueron mayormente recordadas que las neutras, tanto de modo inmediato como diferido (Hämmerer et al, 2017;Justel et al, 2014;Schümann, Bayer, Talmi y Sommer, 2018). Hay explicaciones posibles a porqué la información emocional es recordada en mayor medida al ser comparada con información neutra, por ejemplo, se les presta mayor atención a los detalles (McGaugh y Roozendaal, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Impacto de un estilo de vida activo sobre la memoria emocional

Bossio

Justel

2018

Accion psicol.

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Aerobic and resistance exercise has been related to physical health promotion, besides in the last years its effects at a cognitive level has been investigated. Based on that, the aim of the current work was to evaluate the possible effect of having an active life style on emotional memory. Fortyeight adults of early and middle age participated (range: 18-58 years old) who complete a report through the International Physical Activity Questionnaire about the amount and type of physical activity performed in a typical or regular week, i.e. a week sustained in the last three months of their lives. To evaluate emotional memory participants watched positive, negative and neutral images selected from the International Affective Picture System. Then, how many images they recall and recognize was evaluated (immediate and deferred measures). Participants that had a high level of physical activity in their lives remember immediately more positive images than those participants with a low or moderate level of activity. Besides, this group obtained better results in the immediate recognition measure. Thus, incorporate physical activity as a life style shows benefits in the emotional positive memory.

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Emotional arousal and recognition memory are differentially reflected in pupil diameter responses during emotional memory for negative events in younger and older adults

Cited by 25 publications

References 61 publications

Older adults fail to form stable task representations during model-based reversal inference

Older adults fail to form stable task representations during model-based reversal inference

Recognizing images: The role of motivational significance, complexity, social content, age, and gender

Impacto de un estilo de vida activo sobre la memoria emocional

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