The emotional memory effect: Differential processing or item distinctiveness?

Schmidt, Stephen R.; Saari, Bonnie

doi:10.3758/bf03192924

Cited by 82 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…However, the various performance parametersi.e., hit rate, accuracy, dЈ, response bias, and relative contribution of recollection-did not reveal any immediate behavioral EEM, indicating the intended absence of differences in relatedness and distinctiveness. In addition, the response time during encoding was equal across the arousal levels, suggesting that arousing stimuli did not attract more selective attention (Schmidt and Saari 2007;Talmi et al 2008). Altogether, these data imply that the cognitive factors contributing to the EEM in the standard experimental paradigm were, at least for the most part, eliminated.…”

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confidence: 80%

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

Sommer¹,

Gläscher²,

Moritz³

et al. 2008

Learn. Mem.

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According to the modulation hypothesis, arousal is the crucial factor in the emotional enhancement of memory (EEM). However, the multifactor theory of the EEM recently proposed that cognitive characteristics of emotional stimuli, e.g., relatedness and distinctiveness, also play an important role. The current study aimed to investigate the individual contribution of arousal to the neural correlates of the EEM by controlling for these additional cognitive factors. We observed the characteristic neuronal correlates of the EEM, in particular enhanced activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, which provides evidence for an arousal-driven EEM in the amygdala as proposed by the modulation hypothesis.Emotionally arousing events are usually better remembered than neutral ones (emotional enhancement of memory [EEM]). The modulation hypothesis of the EEM proposes that the basolateral amygdala enhances hippocampal consolidation of arousing stimuli via noradrenergic projections (Cahill and McGaugh 1998;McGaugh 2004). Consistent with the time scale of consolidation, the EEM is observed to be more pronounced and consistent after longer retention intervals (Kleinsmith and Kaplan 1963;Sharot and Yonelinas 2008). However, arousing items are often better remembered immediately after encoding as well, which cannot be explained by more efficient consolidation (Talmi et al. 2008).Therefore, it was recently proposed that the EEM is additionally driven by memory enhancing cognitive characteristics of emotional stimuli, i.e., their distinctiveness, semantic relatedness, and deployment of selective attention. As predicted by this hypothesis, the immediate EEM is substantially reduced when the relative distinctiveness of emotional stimuli in a neutral context is removed by presenting pure lists of emotional and neutral items (Schmidt and Saari 2007;Talmi et al. 2007a). In addition, matching the semantic relatedness of the emotional and neutral stimuli by using categorized neutral items diminishes the immediate EEM (Manning and Julian 1975;Dewhurst and Parry 2000;Talmi and Moscovitch 2004;Buchanan et al. 2006;Talmi et al. 2007a). Importantly, controlling for both factors by using pure lists of categorized items eliminates the immediate behavioral EEM (Talmi et al. 2007a). On the other hand, a purely arousal-driven long term EEM could be observed after a 1 wk retention interval (Anderson et al. 2006). Finally, enhanced selective attention for emotionally arousing stimuli seems to play a more complex but less substantial role that may be valence specific (Kensinger and Corkin 2004;Sharot and Phelps 2004;Kern et al. 2005;Talmi et al. 2007b). The derived multifactorial theory of the EEM proposes that, on the one hand, emotional arousal directly modulates amygdala-driven consolidation but, on the other hand, enhances encoding mediated by the aforementioned cognitive factors (Talmi et al. 2007b).The neural correlates of the EEM are commonly explored by contrasting brain activity during the successful encoding of arousing versus neutral stimuli (...

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confidence: 80%

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

Sommer¹,

Gläscher²,

Moritz³

et al. 2008

Learn. Mem.

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“…1959;Mather, 2007;S. R. Schmidt & Saari, 2007), whether solely or in conjunction with other factors, propose that emotional items are somehow preferentially selected among other items on the list.…”

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confidence: 99%

Investigating the role of emotion during the search process in free recall

Siddiqui

Unsworth

2011

Mem Cogn

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Typically, research has shown that emotional words are remembered better than neutral words; however, most studies have reported only the mean proportion of correctly recalled words. The present study looked at various dependent measures used by search models to determine whether emotion can influence the search process as well. The results from Experiment 2 showed that when emotionality was made salient, participants were able to utilize emotional associations, in addition to temporal associations, to cue retrieval of additional emotional words during subsequent sampling but relied mainly on temporal context when the emotional information was not made salient (Experiment 1). Additionally, both experiments showed that emotional words were more likely to be output earlier in the recall sequence, which would suggest that emotion also serves to boost relative strength during initial sampling. Overall, the results suggest that emotion contributes to enhanced memory dynamically by influencing the probability of sampling an item during the search process-specifically, by boosting relative strength and strengthening interitem associations.

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“…On the other hand, emotional words are better remembered than neutral ones (Altarriba & Bauer, 2004;Brierley, Medford, Shaw, & David, 2007;Buchanan, Etzel, Adolphs, & Tranel, 2006;Ferré, 2003;Ferré, García, Fraga, Sánchez-Casas, & Molero, 2010;Herbert, Junghofer, & Kissler, 2008;Herbert & Kissler, 2010;Kensinger, 2008;Kensinger & Corkin, 2003;Kissler, Herbert, Peyk, & Junghofer, 2007;Schmidt & Saari, 2007). However, with aging, it seems that negative memories vanish more easily than positive memories (Abrisqueta-Gomez, Bueno, Oliveira, & Bertolucci, 2002;Berntsen & Rubin, 2002;Emery Hess, 2008); a clear dierence as compared to younger participants in the literature.…”

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confidence: 98%

“…In recent years, the scientific community has increased its interest in the influence that emotion can exercise on cognitive processes such as memory and attention (Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang, 1992;Schmidt, 2012;Schmidt & Saari, 2007). Moreover, the literature shows a robust effect of emotional valence on memory.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Moreno-Cid¹,

Moret-Tatay²,

Irigaray³

et al. 2015

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Abstract:The aim of this work is to evaluate the roles of age and emotional valence in word recognition in terms of ex-Gaussian distribution components. In order to do that, a word recognition task was carried out with two age groups, in which emotional valence was manipulated. Older participants did not present a clear trend for reaction times. The younger participants showed significant statistical differences in negative words for target and distracting conditions. Addressing the ex-Gaussian τ parameter, often related to attentional demands in the literature, agerelated differences in emotional valence seem not to have an effect for negative words. Focusing on emotional valence for each group, the younger participants only showed an effect on negative distracting words. The older participants showed an effect regarding negative and positive target words, and negative distracting words. This suggests that the attentional demand is higher for emotional words, in particular, for the older participants.

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The emotional memory effect: Differential processing or item distinctiveness?

Cited by 82 publications

References 59 publications

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

Investigating the role of emotion during the search process in free recall

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

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