Supplemental Material for Negative Emotion Reduces Autobiographical Memory’s Susceptibility to Change

The function of emotion in enhancing memory has been proven by a large number of studies. However, previous studies mainly used emotional materials to induce emotions, and far fewer studies have examined how neutral stimuli and emotional event connections affect memory. In Experiment 1, the feedback from the results was used as an emotional event to explore the impact of connected emotions on memory. In Experiment 2, emotional materials were used to induce emotions, and the effects on memory in the two studies were compared. The emotions induced by the feedback resulted in positive emotions having the strongest effects on memory, while negative emotions had the weakest memory effect. However, when the emotional materials were used, there were different outcomes: negative emotional memories were the best, and neutral memories were the worst. Based on these results, we may conclude that different emotion-inducing methods have different effects on memory and that emotionally enhanced memory is not applicable to all emotion-inducing modes.

Episodic memory impairments seem to play a crucial role in schizophrenia. Most of the studies that have demonstrated such a deficit have used neutral material, leaving the recollection of emotional memories in schizophrenia unexplored. An overview is presented of a series of studies investigating the influence of emotion on episodic and autobiographical memory in schizophrenia. These experiments share a common experimental approach in which states of awareness accompanying recollection are considered. Results show that schizophrenia impairs conscious recollection in episodic and autobiographical memory tasks using emotional material. Schizophrenia is also associated with a reduction of the specificity with which autobiographical memories are recalled. An hypothesis in terms of a fundamental executive deficit underlying these impairments is proposed.

The emotional Stroop task (EST) is a widely used method in demonstrating how emotional material disrupts performance on a simple task through the biasing of attention. The finding that participants take longer to identify the colour of emotional material relative to neutral material is known as the emotional Stroop effect (ESE). The ESE was thought to be relatively fast, occurring on a single trial. However, recent research has suggested that emotional, primarily negative, material may disrupt colour-naming ability beyond the time of its presentation, disrupting performance in subsequent trials. That is, the ESE may be comprised of both fast and slow components. Currently there is no consensus as to the duration of the slow disruption or the mechanisms underlying this form of biased attention. Recently, Wyble, Sharma, and Bowman (2008) developed a computational model accounting for the occurrence of both fast and slow components of biased attention within the EST. The model makes specific predictions regarding the relationship between anxiety and the occurrence of fast and slow effects within the task; however these predictions have not been tested. The purpose of the research was to test these predictions in individuals with varying levels of anxiety. In total, five experiments were conducted; two to select stimuli for use in the ESTs (Experiments 1 and 3; n = 250) and three ESTs (Experiments 2, 3, and 5; n = 317) whereby fast and slow effects were examined in individuals who were low anxious, state anxious, trait anxious, and state-trait anxious. Duration of slow effects was examined by manipulating the length of the inter-trial intervals (ITIs) between words in the EST, in addition to tracking reaction times (RTs) over a series of five positions. Furthermore, positive emotion and negative emotion words with comparable arousal ratings were utilised in conjunction with neutral words to determine whether arousal, in addition to valence, played a role in biasing attention. Results showed mixed support for the hypotheses. The first emotional Stroop experiment (Experiment 2) found no evidence of fast effects. Slow effects were noted at the 32 ms block, albeit in a position later than expected. Slow effects emerged for all individuals on Position 4 between neutral words in the positive emotion sequence versus neutral words in the negative emotion sequence. There were also unexpected patterns of responding to pure sequences of neutral words. Due to the unexpected results, a decision was made to run an additional emotional Stroop experiment (Experiment 3) utilising different neutral stimuli. This experiment found no evidence of fast or slow effects occurring. Based on the inconsistencies in results between Experiment 2 and 3, Experiment 5 was conducted utilising a contingency-free methodology that allowed for the independent assessment of fast and slow effects. Results from Experiment 5 did not find evidence of a fast effect, however, in the anxious group, participants responded to neutral words that were presented after positive emotion words significantly faster than neutral words presented after negative emotion words. Collectively, the results did not find support for a fast component of attentional bias, which was contrary to predictions. Additionally, mixed support emerged for the presence of slow effects. While disruptions in colour-identification were noted on neutral words that followed emotion words, these were generally not in the position expected and did not always implicate the expected word type. The findings of the current study do not support the predictions of the Wyble et al. (2008) model. Implications of the current findings in addition to future directions are discussed.

Emotional content has complex effects on false memory. Under certain circumstances, emotional material may reduce the likelihood of false memory, a phenomenon that some consider related to it being more distinctive than neutral stimuli. In the present study we tested inferential false memory related to emotionally neutral or negative, and distinctive (but not emotionally charged) scripted material. Remember/familiar judgements were required for recognised stimuli. Data were analysed using mixed-effects multinomial regressions and a Bayesian inferential approach. Results obtained with 82 adult participants showed that, compared with neutral material: distinctive material reduced their false memory associated with “remember” and “familiar” judgements, virtually to the same extent; negatively-charged material reduced false memory associated with “remember” judgements but it had no effect on false memory associated with “familiar” judgements. In short, negatively-charged and distinctive material seems to affect false memory in different ways: the latter affects both recollection and familiarity, the former only recollection.

In the modern age of technology development, the ability of computer to recognize and express emotions are expected in Human-Computer Interaction. This paper proposed a method to evaluate human emotions by extracting human explicit behaviors during interaction, which prevented interference from outside. To achieve the aim, OpenCV was used to extract silhouette features of physical behaviors and PAD scale was used to evaluate the emotions on time. And then, Emotion-Behavior Library was established based on both silhouette features and the results of PAD scale. In order to obtain positive, negative and negative emotions, Chinese folk music were used as emotional material in the experiment. Subjects were asked to express their emotions by body movements. The results verified the hypothesis: (1) behavioral features can effectively represent emotions; (2) the method for extracting the behavioral characteristics in this study is effective. Besides, we found that the front camera has a higher accuracy, for example accuracy of positive and negative was 72.5%, while the data of right camera hasn’t been classified effectively.

Following an emotional experience, individuals are confronted with the persistence of ruminative thoughts that disturb the undertaking of other activities. In the present study, we experimentally tested the idea that experiencing a negative emotion triggers a ruminative process that drains working memory (WM) resources normally devoted to other tasks. Undergraduate participants of high versus low WM capacity were administered the operation-word memory span test (OSPAN) as a measure of availability of WM resources preceding and following the presentation of negative emotional versus neutral material. Rumination was assessed immediately after the second OSPAN session and at a 24-hr delay. Results showed that both the individual's WM capacity and the emotional valence of the material influenced WM performance and the persistence of ruminative thoughts. Following the experimental induction, rumination mediated the relationship between the negative emotional state and the concomitant WM performance. Based on these results, we argue that ruminative processes deplete WM resources, making them less available for concurrent tasks; in addition, rumination tends to persist over time. These findings have implications for the theoretical modeling of the long-term effects of emotions in both daily life and clinical contexts.

In the field of emotion research, the influence of emotion regulation strategies on memory with emotional materials has been widely discussed in recent years. However, existing studies have focused exclusively on regulating negative emotion but not positive emotion. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the influence of emotion regulation strategies for positive emotion on memory. One hundred and twenty college students were selected as participants. Emotional pictures (positive, negative and neutral) were selected from Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS) as experimental materials. We employed a mixed, 4 (emotion regulation strategies: cognitive up-regulation, cognitive down-regulation, expressive suppression, passive viewing) × 3 (emotional pictures: positive, neutral, negative) experimental design. We investigated the influences of different emotion regulation strategies on memory performance, using free recall and recognition tasks with pictures varying in emotional content. The results showed that recognition and free recall memory performance of the cognitive reappraisal groups (up-regulation and down-regulation) were both better than that of the passive viewing group for all emotional pictures. No significant differences were reported in the two kinds of memory scores between the expressive suppression and passive viewing groups. The results also showed that the memory performance with the emotional pictures differed according to the form of memory test. For the recognition test, participants performed better with positive images than with neutral images. Free recall scores with negative images were higher than those with neutral images. These results suggest that both cognitive reappraisal regulation strategies (up-regulation and down-regulation) promoted explicit memories of the emotional content of stimuli, and the form of memory test influenced performance with emotional pictures.

Previous research has made significant progress elucidating the nature of cognitive biases in emotional disorders. However, less work has focused on the relation among cognitive biases and emotional responding in clinical samples. This study uses eye-tracking to examine difficulties disengaging attention from emotional material in depressed participants and to test its relation with mood reactivity and recovery during and after a stress induction. Participants diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and never-disordered control participants (CTL) completed a novel eye-tracking paradigm in which participants had to disengage their attention from emotional material to attend to a neutral stimulus. Time to disengage attention was computed using a direct recording of eye movements. Participants then completed a stress induction and mood reactivity and recovery were assessed. MDD compared with CTL participants took significantly longer to disengage from depression-related stimuli (i.e., sad faces). Individual differences in disengagement predicted lower recovery from sad mood in response to the stress induction in the MDD group. These results suggest that difficulties in attentional disengagement may contribute to the sustained negative affect that characterizes depressive disorders.

Analyzing the influence of mixed emotional factors on false memory through brain function network is helpful to further explore the nature of brain memory. In this study, Deese-Roediger-Mc-Dermott (DRM) paradigm electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment was designed with mixed emotional memory materials, and different kinds of music were used to induce positive, calm and negative emotions of three groups of subjects. For the obtained false memory EEG signals, standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography algorithm (sLORETA) was applied in the source localization, and then the functional network of cerebral cortex was built and analyzed. The results show that the positive group has the most false memories [(83.3 ± 6.8)%], the prefrontal lobe and left temporal lobe are activated, and the degree of activation and the density of brain network are significantly larger than those of the calm group and the negative group. In the calm group, the posterior prefrontal lobe and temporal lobe are activated, and the collectivization degree and the information transmission rate of brain network are larger than those of the positive and negative groups. The negative group has the least false memories [(73.3 ± 2.2)%], and the prefrontal lobe and right temporal lobe are activated. The brain network is the sparsest in the negative group, the degree of centralization is significantly larger than that of the calm group, but the collectivization degree and the information transmission rate of brain network are smaller than the positive group. The results show that the brain is stimulated by positive emotions, so more brain resources are used to memorize and associate words, which increases false memory. The activity of the brain is inhibited by negative emotions, which hinders the brain's memory and association of words and reduces false memory.

Supplemental Material for Negative Emotions Disrupt Intentional Synchronization During Group Sensorimotor Interaction

Supplemental Material for Negative Emotion Enhances Memory for the Sequential Unfolding of a Naturalistic Experience

Supplemental Material for Negative Emotions and Chronic Physical Illness: A Lifespan Developmental Perspective

Supplemental Material for Discrete Negative Emotions and Goal Disengagement in Older Adulthood: Context Effects and Associations With Emotional Well-Being

Supplemental Material for Negative Emotion Boosts Quality of Visual Working Memory Representation

The processing of positive memories technique (PPMT) entails detailed narration and processing of specific positive autobiographical memories (AM) and has shown promise in improving posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. We examined whether participants receiving PPMT reported decreases in PTSD and depressive symptom severity, negative affect levels/reactivity, posttrauma cognitions, and positive emotion dysregulation, as well as increases in positive affect levels/reactivity and the number of retrieved positive AMs across four PPMT sessions. Individuals (N = 70) recruited from the community completed surveys at baseline (pre-PPMT), each PPMT session, and after completing all four PPMT sessions. Multilevel linear growth models indicated session-to-session decreases in PTSD severity, β = -.17, p <.001; depressive symptom severity, β = -.13, p <.001; negative affect levels, β = -.13, p <.001; positive affect reactivity, β = -.14, p =.014; and posttrauma cognitions, β = -.12, p <.001; and session-to-session increases in negative affect reactivity, β =.18, p =.001. Paired-samples t tests indicated decreases in retrieved positive AMs, d = 0.40, p =.001, including specific positive AMs, and negative AMs, d = 0.23, p =.022, and increases in retrieved overgeneral positive AMs, d = -0.38, p =.002, from baseline to postintervention. Thus, PPMT may help decrease PTSD and depression severity, negative affect, posttrauma cognitions, and negative AM recall tendencies. Clinicians may need to incorporate additional skills into the PPMT framework to improve positive affect processes that can be sustained over time.