Information content moderates positivity and negativity biases in memory.

Abstract

Two experiments examined the impact of encoding conditions and information content in memory for positive, neutral, and negative pictures. We examined the hypotheses that the positivity effect in memory (i.e., a bias in favor of positive or against negative information in later life) would be reduced when (a) pictures were viewed under structured as opposed to unstructured conditions, and (b) contained social as opposed to nonsocial content. Both experiments found that the positivity effect observed with nonsocial stimuli was absent with social stimuli. In addition, little evidence was obtained that encoding conditions affected the strength of the positivity effect. We argue that some types of social stimuli may engage different types of processing than nonsocial stimuli, perhaps encouraging self-referential processing that engages attention and supports memory. This processing may then conflict with the goal-driven, top-down processing that is hypothesized to drive the positivity effect. Thus, our results identify further boundary conditions associated with the positivity effect in memory, arguing that stimulus factors as well as situational goals may affect its occurrence. Further research awaits to determine if this effect is specific to all social stimuli or specific subsets.

Source memory that encoding was self-referential: the influence of stimulus characteristics

“…For pictures, self-referential processing increased old/new recognition of positive and neutral pictures, but only marginally for negative pictures. This pattern for pictures is consistent with the results of Hess et al (2013, Experiment 2) showing enhanced recall after self-referential encoding of positive, but not negative, social pictures. Taken together, these results are generally consistent with previous findings of an item SRE under various conditions.…”

“…One notable exception is a study by D’Argembeau and colleagues (2005, Experiment 1) that showed a bigger SRE for the recall of positive than negative trait adjectives. To our knowledge, only one study has explicitly investigated the SRE using positive and negative pictures (Hess, Popham, Dennis, & Emery, 2013, Experiment 2). In contrast to the pattern found in trait adjective studies, Hess et al (2013) found that among social pictures (i.e., pictures that included people), self-referential encoding (i.e., imagining themselves, a close family member, or a friend in the situation depicted in the picture) significantly increased recall of positive pictures, but did not enhance recall of negative pictures; self-referential encoding did not enhance the recall of either positive or negative nonsocial pictures.…”

“…To our knowledge, only one study has explicitly investigated the SRE using positive and negative pictures (Hess, Popham, Dennis, & Emery, 2013, Experiment 2). In contrast to the pattern found in trait adjective studies, Hess et al (2013) found that among social pictures (i.e., pictures that included people), self-referential encoding (i.e., imagining themselves, a close family member, or a friend in the situation depicted in the picture) significantly increased recall of positive pictures, but did not enhance recall of negative pictures; self-referential encoding did not enhance the recall of either positive or negative nonsocial pictures. It is unclear if Hess et al’s (2013) findings for recall of pictures would generalise to other measures of item memory given that valence differences in the SRE for recognition of pictures has not been examined.…”

Examining the Positivity Effect in Autobiographical Memory Across Adulthood

“…Insight as to why the positivity effect was not demonstrated in the current study, despite instructions that placed few constraints on the memory retrieved, may be provided by recent research by Hess et al (2013). Hess et al presented both social and nonsocial pictures to participants and found evidence of the positivity effect in aging only regarding the rates of recall in nonsocial stimuli.…”

Positivity bias in past and future episodic thinking: Relationship with anxiety, depression, and retrieval-induced forgetting

“…Nørby (2015) argues that the act of forgetting plays a vital role in maintaining mental wellbeing by limiting access to negative memories, promoting a positive outlook. Indeed, it appears positivity biases in memory are driven by top-down, goal-directed processes, with little evidence to suggest that the strength of such positivity biases is effected at memory encoding stages (Hess, Popham, Dennis, & Emery, 2013). Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF), a phenomenon in which the selective retrieval of a particular memory trace causes the forgetting of another rival memory trace (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994), has been put forward as a potential mechanism by which the positivity bias in memory occurs (Storm & Jobe, 2012).…”