Abstract
BackgroundEmotion can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on what, when and how memory is tested and whether the paradigm at hand is administered as a working memory (WM) or a long-term memory (LTM) task. Whereas emotionally arousing single stimuli are more likely to be remembered, memory for the relationship between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) appears to be worse in the presence of emotional stimuli, at least in some relational memory tasks. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task.Methodology/Principal FindingsA five-pair delayed-match-to-sample (WM) task was administered. In each trial, study pairs consisted of one neutral picture and a second picture of which the emotional qualities (valence and arousal levels) were manipulated. These pairs had to be remembered across a delay interval of 10 seconds. This was followed by a probe phase in which five pairs were tested. After completion of this task, an unexpected single item LTM task as well as an LTM task for the pairs was assessed. As expected, emotional arousal impaired WM processing. This was reflected in lower accuracy for pairs consisting of high-arousal pictures compared to pairs with low-arousal pictures. A similar effect was found for the associative LTM task. However, the arousal effect was modulated by affective valence for the WM but not the LTM task; pairs with low-arousal negative pictures were not processed as well in the WM task. No significant differences were found for the single-item LTM task.Conclusions/SignificanceThe present study provides additional evidence that processes during initial perception/encoding and post-encoding processes, the time interval between study and test and the interaction between valence and arousal might modulate the effects of “emotion” on associative memory.
Highlights
The likelihood of remembering a stimulus or an event is modulated by how the information is encoded and how memory is tested and critically by their emotional content
Memory performance may be a function of whether memory for single items or the relation between two or more component parts is tested [3,4], which aspects in a relational memory paradigm are tested [5,6,7,8,9], and of the length of the delay between study and test, whether the task is administered as a working memory (WM) or long-term memory (LTM) task [10]
Kensinger & Corkin (2003; [32]) conducted five experiments, in which they assessed different WM paradigms, as well as subsequent LTM tasks that were typically administered one day after the WM task. Their tasks did not rely on relational memory, the results indicated that performance on the WM tasks was not affected by the emotional content of the stimuli
Summary
The likelihood of remembering a stimulus or an event is modulated by how the information is encoded (intentional vs. incidental) and how memory is tested (e.g., free recall vs. recognition memory) and critically by their emotional content. Memory performance may be a function of whether memory for single items or the relation between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) is tested [3,4], which aspects in a relational memory paradigm are tested (e.g., the emotional or non-emotional part of a scene) [5,6,7,8,9], and of the length of the delay between study and test, whether the task is administered as a working memory (WM) or long-term memory (LTM) task [10] Both valence and arousal levels of the stimuli or events [11,12,13] and how ‘‘emotion’’ is manipulated (e.g., through mood induction, by manipulation of the emotional content of the to-be-remembered stimuli or of distracting stimuli) are all critical determinants of the accuracy with which an event is remembered. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task
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