The effects of age and emotional valence on recognition memory: An ex‐Gaussian components analysis

Abstract

de Córdoba Castellá, P. (2014). The effects of age and emotional valence on recognition memory: An exGaussian components analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.The aim of this work was to study the effects of valence and age on visual image recognition memory. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) battery was used, and response time data were analyzed using analysis of variance, as well as an ex-Gaussian fit method. Older participants were slower and more variable in their reaction times. Response times were longer for negative valence pictures, however this was statistically significant only for young participants. This suggests that negative emotional valence has a strong effect on recognition memory in young but not in old participants. The s parameter, often related to attention in the literature, was smaller for young than old participants in an ex-Gaussian fit. Differences on the s parameter might suggest poorer attentional performance in old participants.

Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times

“…Furthermore, the role of variability should be taken into account (Myerson, Robertson & Hale, 2007) as well as the role of perception, decision, and motor response stages that have been highlighted in this measure in the literature (Luce, 1986). The RT usually has been described as a sensitivity measure for some cognitive process (Moret-Tatay, Moreno-Cid, Argimon et al, 2014). Not surprisingly, the RT has turned into a common dependent variable in most cognitive assessment tests.…”

“…One option is to perform a distributional analysis of the data. In the case of positively skewed data, an appealing possibility for this distribution is the ex-Gaussian distribution function (Balota & Yap, 2011;Lacouture & Cousineau, 2008;Luce, 1986;Moreno-Cid, Moret-Tatay, Irigaray et al, 2015;Moret-Tatay, Leth-Steensen, Irigaray et al, 2016;Moret-Tatay et al, 2014;Ratcliff and Murdock, 1976). Furthermore, this option can be a useful tool when dealing with high variability in the data.…”

The Role of Age and Emotional Valence in Word Recognition: An Ex-Gaussian Analysis

“…The ex-Gaussian function is the combination of two functions; a Gaussian (normal) and an exponential distribution. Several authors (Lemus-Zúñiga, Navarro-Pardo, Moret-Tatay & Pocinho, 2015;Moret-Tatay, Irigaray, Oliveira, & Argimon, 2015;Moret-Tatay et al, 2014;Moret-Tatay et al, in press;Navarro-Pardo, Navarro-Prados, Gamermann, & Moret-Tatay, 2013) have discussed the benefits of this approach in terms of statistical analysis. The ex-Gaussian distribution is characterized by three parameters, µ, σ and τ.…”

The mediational role of distracting stimuli in emotional word recognition

“…A total of 90 words were divided into three sets of 30 stimuli, based on their scores on emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral); see Table 1. Employing the same stimuli as Moreno-Cid, Moret-Tatay, Irigaray, Argimon, Murphy, et al (2015), where stimuli rated 4 or lower were considered to be negative, rated 4 to 6 to be neutral, and rated above 6 to be positive (consistent with previous literature, see Moret-Tatay et al 2014). From the 90 words selected, 45 words were designated as target (and appeared in the first and second block) and the other 45 as distractors (and appeared only in the second block).…”

“…More precisely, and focusing on the particular effect of negative emotional content on word recognition, it has been suggested that negative stimuli elicit slower latencies under this condition. According to Moret-Tatay, Moreno-Cid, Argimon, Quarti Irigaray, Szczerbinski, et al (2014), this is a plausible result suggesting that an automatic vigilance process might operate to engage attention longer. In particular, the literature (León Gordillo, Martínez, Hernández, Cruz, Meilán, et al 2010;Meng, Zhang, Liu, Ding, Li, et al 2017) has suggested that the "normal population" might be predisposed to direct their attention to negative stimuli, supporting the idea that the negative emotional charge could have an essential role in our evolution.…”