The role of perceived threat in the survival processing memory advantage

Abstract

Information that is processed in relation to survival tends to promote superior recall relative to other elaborate encoding manipulations (e.g., Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). The current research examines whether perceived threat plays a role in the survival processing memory advantage. In the current experiment survival processing was manipulated such that participants were presented with an ancestral (grasslands) or modern (city) context, and either a low, medium, or high threat level. The results revealed a strong survival processing advantage, with the magnitude of the advantage related to level of perceived threat. The findings as a whole suggest that perceived threat contributes to the recall advantage.