The effect of glucose administration on the emotional enhancement effect in recognition memory

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that glucose administration improves memory performance. However few studies have addressed the effects of glucose on emotional material that by nature already enjoys a memory advantage. The aim of the present research was therefore to investigate whether the memory facilitation effect associated with glucose would emerge for emotional words. Experiment 1 demonstrated that negative words were better recognized and remembered than positive and neutral words. Experiment 2 further explored these effects under conditions of glucose administration and an aspartame control. The results revealed that both the aspartame and glucose groups replicated the results from Experiment 1. The present research therefore demonstrated that the glucose facilitation effect did not emerge for material that already benefits from a memory advantage. These results also raise the question of whether the dose response relationship previously associated with glucose administration is applicable when the information being processed is of an emotional nature.