Abstract
The emotional intensity of an event is a significant predictor for vividness of event memory. Nevertheless, during the last few decades, there has been some confusion in literature as to whether emotional events are poorly or well retained. It is important to consider that not all details of emotional events are equally remembered: Memory for the central details seems to be relatively good, whereas memory for peripheral details appears to be relatively poor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the accuracy of central vs. peripheral details of an emotional event in a natural but controlled context: the emotional event is a simulated life event, the central and peripheral details of the emotional event were controlled. Indeed previous research work was simply based on the induction of an emotional state in an experimental context and subsequent assessment of a performance memory task. Results showed that, following an emotional event, individuals provided a vivid and accurate recollection not only of the central gist of the event, but also of the context and peripheral details. Implications for literature on emotional autobiographical memories were discussed.
Highlights
The emotional intensity of an event is a significant predictor for vividness of event memory
The strength of the present study is to explore the accuracy of emotional memory details in a natural but controlled context, whereas previous reserch work has mainly focused on the induction of an emotional state in an experimental setting and, on the assessment of a performance memory tasks (Reisberg & Huer, 1992; Christianson, 1992)
A significant main effect of Type of Details was found to be significant (F1,94 = 50.92, p < .001) in that central details were more accurately remembered than peripheral details
Summary
The emotional intensity of an event is a significant predictor for vividness of event memory. It is thought that memory for the gist (central details) of an emotional event is well retained, whereas memory for irrelevant information (peripheral details) is poorly recalled (see, for overviews, Christianson, 1992; Heuer & Reisberg, 1992). Some studies have found that, whereas memory for peripheral details seems to be diminished by high levels of arousal, memory for central details (emotion-related and plot-relevant details) appears to be facilitated (e.g., Burke, Heuer, & Reisberg, 1992; Christianson & Loftus, 1991; Christianson, Loftus, Hoffman, & Loftus, 1991; see Christianson, 1992, for a review). Field studies examining the memory of witnesses for robberies (Christianson & Hübinette, 1993), or that of college students for emotional events (Christianson & Loftus, 1990; Wessel & Merckelbach, 1994) suggest that central information is, better remembered than peripheral information
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