Personal relevance modulates the positivity bias in recall of emotional pictures in older adults

Tomaszczyk, Jennifer C.; Fernandes, Myra A.; MacLeod, Colin M.

doi:10.3758/pbr.15.1.191

Cited by 57 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The absence of age differences in valence ratings is inconsistent with results reported by Grühn and Sheibe (2008) and Keil and Freund (2009) using a larger sample of IAPS pictures, but replicates findings in other studies of memory (e.g., Emery & Hess, 2008; Tomaszczyk et al, 2008). The differences across studies may relate to the stimulus subsets examined or the nature of the sample (e.g., German vs. North American).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 80%

Information content moderates positivity and negativity biases in memory.

Hess¹,

Popham²,

Dennis³

et al. 2013

Psychology and Aging

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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.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 80%

Information content moderates positivity and negativity biases in memory.

Hess¹,

Popham²,

Dennis³

et al. 2013

Psychology and Aging

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Older adults' predictions about recall of emotional words are particularly interesting because older adults are more likely than young adults to show a memory benefit for positive emotional information over negative emotional information (e.g., Tomaszczyk, Fernandes, & MacLeod, 2008). However, 1 The term physiological is used here in reference to prior work substantiating the claim that high-arousal words lead to a different physiological response; we did not directly measure physiological responses in the present study.…”

Section: Prior Investigations Of Emotion and Metamemorymentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Zimmerman and Kelley's (2010) free recall findings were subsequently replicated by Tauber and Dunlosky (2012), who also included older adult participants in their study. Older adults' predictions about recall of emotional words are particularly interesting because older adults are more likely than young adults to show a memory benefit for positive emotional information over negative emotional information (e.g., Tomaszczyk, Fernandes, & MacLeod, 2008). However, Tauber and Dunlosky (2012) found that although both groups recalled negative and positive words better than neutral words, older adults' JOLs did not show any particular bias for positive over negative words: Both young and older adults gave higher JOLs to negative words than to neutral words, but only young adults gave higher JOLs to positive words than neutral words.…”

Section: Prior Investigations Of Emotion and Metamemorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The influences of valence and arousal on judgments of learning and on recall

2016

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Much is known about how the emotional content of words affects memory for those words, but only recently have researchers begun to investigate whether emotional content influences metamemory-that is, learners' assessments of what is or is not memorable. The present study replicated recent work demonstrating that judgments of learning (JOLs) do indeed reflect the superior memorability of words with emotional content. We further contrasted two hypotheses regarding this effect: a physiological account in which emotional words are judged to be more memorable because of their arousing properties, versus a cognitive account in which emotional words are judged to be more memorable because of their cognitive distinctiveness. Two results supported the latter account. First, both normed arousal (Exp. 1) and normed valence (Exp. 2) independently influenced JOLs, even though only an effect of arousal would be expected under a physiological account. Second, emotional content no longer influenced JOLs in a design (Exp. 3) that reduced the primary distinctiveness of emotional words by using a single list of words in which normed valence and arousal were varied continuously. These results suggest that the metamnemonic benefit of emotional words likely stems from cognitive factors.Keywords Emotion . Metamemory . RecallEmotion is a fundamental aspect of the human experience, and understanding how emotion influences our cognitive processes is an essential component of understanding cognition in general (Mandler, 1975). Emotional effects on memory could include memory for an emotional event, memory for neutral stimuli encountered while in an emotional state, and memory for emotional content encountered in a neutral state. Here, we consider the lattermost of these scenarios: how the emotional content of material encountered in an otherwise neutral state influences subsequent memory and metamemory.We frequently encounter situations in which we learn and remember emotional information, such as when we read a news article recounting a natural disaster or celebration, or when we encounter emotionally evocative literature. Generally, emotional information is remembered better than neutral information (see Kensinger, 2009;Levine & Edelstein, 2009, for reviews); this has been observed with both pictures (e.g., Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang, 1992) and words (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2003). In the present study, we examined whether and how emotion influences our predictions of future recall, and what these findings imply about the processes by which emotion influences memory and metamemory. Metamemory for emotional informationDespite the vast amount of research examining memory for emotional information, relatively little research has focused on how metamemory (i.e., the monitoring and control of memory) is influenced by emotion. Some general evidence (Tauber & Dunlosky, 2012;Zimmerman & Kelley, 2010) Mem Cogn (2017) 45:121-136 DOI 10.3758/s13421-016-0646-3 below, suggests that learners' predictions of recall can be sensit...

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“…However, results are mixed for younger adults: some studies reported an attention and memory preference for negative stimuli (e.g. Thomas & Hasher, 2006;Tomaszczyk, Fernandes, & MacLeod, 2008); some revealed a tendency to actively avoid looking at negative stimuli (Becker & Detweiler-Bedell, 2009); some provided evidence for mood-discongruent memory (e.g. Parrott & Sabini, 1990) and attention (e.g., Schwager & Rothermund, 2013); and some suggested that younger adults show a mood-congruent preference in attention (e.g., Becker & Leinenger, 2011;Ferraro, King, Ronning, Pekarski, & Risan, 2003;Isaacowitz, Toner, Goren, & Wilson, 2008;Koster, De Raedt, Leyman, & De Lissnyder, 2010).…”

Section: Internally Located Emotional Impact: the Observer's Emotionamentioning

confidence: 93%