Source of arousal and memory for detail

Positive and negative sources of emotional arousal enhance long-term word-list retention when induced as long as 30min after learning

“…This further supports the idea that materials of any valence or arousal value could be enhanced by posttraining memory modulation techniques. This result is consistent with several previous studies (Colrain et al, 1992;Manning et al, 1992;Nielson & Bryant, 2005;Nielson & Jensen, 1994;Nielson et al, 1996Nielson et al, , 2005 and contrasts with contentions that materials must have inherent affective or arousal quality for memory modulation to occur (e.g., Libkuman, Nichols-Whitehead, Griffith, & Thomas, 1999).…”

Memory enhancement by a semantically unrelated emotional arousal source induced after learning

“…These results contrast with other studies whose authors concluded that the arousal source must be related to the to-be-remembered material (e.g., Christianson, Nilsson, Mjörndal, Perris, & Tjelldén, 1986;Libkuman et al, 1999). Importantly, the memory stimuli were both temporally and semantically distinct from the source of arousal.…”

“…Although the human studies described have significantly contributed to our understanding of the effects of emotion on memory, each also had significant limitations precluding strong conclusions about the role of arousal per se in memory. In some studies, the degree of arousal achieved in the experiment was potentially too high to enhance memory (e.g., Christianson et al, 1984), and in some studies, memory for different materials was compared across groups (e.g., Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999), or sources of arousal were combined from external and stimulus sources, which clouds the issue of the effect of arousal source on memory. Importantly, in most of these studies, arousal was manipulated during the encoding phase of the tasks employed, which confounded the effects of arousal on attention and encoding with its effects on consolidation (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999).…”

“…In some studies, the degree of arousal achieved in the experiment was potentially too high to enhance memory (e.g., Christianson et al, 1984), and in some studies, memory for different materials was compared across groups (e.g., Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999), or sources of arousal were combined from external and stimulus sources, which clouds the issue of the effect of arousal source on memory. Importantly, in most of these studies, arousal was manipulated during the encoding phase of the tasks employed, which confounded the effects of arousal on attention and encoding with its effects on consolidation (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999). Finally, previous animal and human research makes clear that memory consolidation takes time (e.g., , but each of these previous studies used very short-term retention tests (10-15 min delay), potentially missing the effects of the arousal manipulation (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999;.…”

“…Importantly, in most of these studies, arousal was manipulated during the encoding phase of the tasks employed, which confounded the effects of arousal on attention and encoding with its effects on consolidation (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999). Finally, previous animal and human research makes clear that memory consolidation takes time (e.g., , but each of these previous studies used very short-term retention tests (10-15 min delay), potentially missing the effects of the arousal manipulation (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Christianson et al, 1984;Libkuman et al, 1999;. Indeed, a recent study showed that has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.…”