Emotional memory is perceptual
Section snippets
Emotional memory is perceptual
The idea that emotional events are better memorized than neutral events is widespread. It is tempting to attribute a functional value to this phenomenon, as emotions signify information that is potentially important for survival. A superior recollection of emotional events might help the organism to better cope with both negative and positive events, i.e. it might help to optimally adapt to the environment. Dozens of animal and human studies have indeed yielded evidence for the idea that
Overview and design
Data were collected during two experiments in which the emotion induction and the memory tasks were tested, as a pilot for a large pharmacological experiment on emotional memory. Since both experiments had the same design, and had similar results, data were collapsed to increase statistical power. Both experiments had two conditions, a neutral and an emotional condition (see Cahill et al., 1994). Subjects were randomized across conditions. There was an acquisition phase during which the
Manipulation check
The VAS ratings of emotionality of the story were analyzed separately for the two versions of the experiment. In experiment 1 the emotional story was scored only modestly higher than the neutral story, means (sd's) 3.77 (2.19) and 2.80 (1.54), , (one tailed). An outlier analysis revealed two outliers in the neutral condition. After deleting these two cases, the difference was significant, , (one tailed). In experiment 2 the difference was much larger,
Discussion
The free recall test replicated earlier findings that emotional memory is superior to memory of more neutral events. Free recall of memories of the slides preceding and following the emotional stimuli was not superior. The proper aim of the present study was to investigate what kinds of memories are modulated by emotion. We used a framework proposed by Roediger (1990), characterized by a processing dimension (perceptual versus conceptual) and a retrieval dimension (implicit versus explicit). On
Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Larry Cahill and Anna van Stegeren for providing us with their stimulus material, memory tests, and experimental instructions.
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