Memory Disadvantages for Cvc Associates of Emotional Words

Contini, Luciano; Whissell, Cynthia

doi:10.2466/pms.1992.75.2.427

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…Interestingly, the very few studies using paired-associate memory tasks, where the relationship between two or more objects has to be remembered (i.e., inter-item binding paradigms), showed the opposite pattern. For example, paired-associate memory tasks in which the associated word had to be generated to a cue word demonstrated lower performance for associates of emotional rather than neutral cue words, hence indicating impaired performance on inter-item binding paradigms for emotional stimuli [36]–[38] (see [39] for contradicting evidence; it has been argued however, that this may be due to enhanced item memory rather than associative memory per se [3]). Another study addressed the issue of possible differential effects of emotion on intra- and inter-item binding tasks empirically and found differential effects of valence for these two tasks, depending on whether participants were instructed to visualize neutral-neutral or neutral-emotional word pairs as an integrated unit or to visualize them separately from one another [40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

et al. 2012

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BackgroundEmotion can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on what, when and how memory is tested and whether the paradigm at hand is administered as a working memory (WM) or a long-term memory (LTM) task. Whereas emotionally arousing single stimuli are more likely to be remembered, memory for the relationship between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) appears to be worse in the presence of emotional stimuli, at least in some relational memory tasks. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task.Methodology/Principal FindingsA five-pair delayed-match-to-sample (WM) task was administered. In each trial, study pairs consisted of one neutral picture and a second picture of which the emotional qualities (valence and arousal levels) were manipulated. These pairs had to be remembered across a delay interval of 10 seconds. This was followed by a probe phase in which five pairs were tested. After completion of this task, an unexpected single item LTM task as well as an LTM task for the pairs was assessed. As expected, emotional arousal impaired WM processing. This was reflected in lower accuracy for pairs consisting of high-arousal pictures compared to pairs with low-arousal pictures. A similar effect was found for the associative LTM task. However, the arousal effect was modulated by affective valence for the WM but not the LTM task; pairs with low-arousal negative pictures were not processed as well in the WM task. No significant differences were found for the single-item LTM task.Conclusions/SignificanceThe present study provides additional evidence that processes during initial perception/encoding and post-encoding processes, the time interval between study and test and the interaction between valence and arousal might modulate the effects of “emotion” on associative memory.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

et al. 2012

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Advantage for Emotional Words in Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks: Could it be Explained in Terms of Processing Capacity?

Ferré

2002

Span. J. Psychol.

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Emotional stimuli are better remembered and recognized than neutral ones. This advantage for emotional stimuli has been repeatedly obtained when testing long-term retention. However, there are contradictory results concerning retention of emotional information when short retention intervals are used. The aim of the present study was, on the one hand, to test the effect of retention interval on memory for emotional stimuli (Experiment 1). The results showed that emotional information is better remembered than neutral information in both immediate and delayed memory tests, suggesting that the advantage for emotional information is not limited to long retention intervals. On the other hand, I tried to test the proposals made by Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). These authors suggested that the advantage for emotional stimuli could be explained as emotional stimuli spending more processing capacity during acquisition, thus rendering less capacity available to encode simultaneously presented information (Experiments 2 and 3). Results showed that concurrent presentation of emotional stimuli did not inhibit the recall of neutral stimuli. These findings do not seem to support the proposals of Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). According to these results, some mechanisms other than a greater spending of processing capacity have to be involved in the advantage for emotional information in memory.

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Emotional Arousal and Memory Binding: An Object-Based Framework

Mather

2007

Perspect Psychol Sci

412

447

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Binding various features of an event together and maintaining these connections in memory is an essential component of episodic memories. Previous theories make contradictory predictions about the effects of emotional arousal on memory binding. In this article, I review evidence for both arousal-impaired and arousal-enhanced memory binding and explain these contradictory findings using an object-based framework. According to this framework, emotionally arousing objects attract attention that enhances binding of their constituent features. In contrast, the emotional arousal associated with one object either impairs or has no effect on the associations between that object and other distinct objects or background contextual information. After initial encoding, the attention-grabbing nature of emotionally arousing objects can lead to interference in working memory, making it more difficult to maintain other bound representations. These contrasting effects of arousal on memory binding should help predict which aspects of emotional memories are likely to be accurate and which aspects are likely to be misremembered.

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Memory Disadvantages for Cvc Associates of Emotional Words

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

Advantage for Emotional Words in Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks: Could it be Explained in Terms of Processing Capacity?

Emotional Arousal and Memory Binding: An Object-Based Framework

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