Emotional Arousal Does Not Enhance Association-Memory

Autor/inn/en	Madan, Christopher R.; Caplan, Jeremy B.; Lau, Christine S. M.; Fujiwara, Esther
Titel	Emotional Arousal Does Not Enhance Association-Memory
Quelle	In: Journal of Memory and Language, 66 (2012) 4, S.695-716 (22 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0749-596X
DOI	10.1016/j.jml.2012.04.001
Schlagwörter	Memory; Data Analysis; Arousal Patterns; Emotional Response; Models; Recall (Psychology); Experiments + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gedächtnis; Auswertung; Emotionales Verhalten; Analogiemodell; Abberufung; Erprobung
Abstract	Emotionally arousing information is remembered better than neutral information. This enhancement effect has been shown for memory for items. In contrast, studies of association-memory have found both impairments and enhancements of association-memory by arousal. We aimed to resolve these conflicting results by using a cued-recall paradigm combined with a model-based data analysis method (Madan, Glaholt, & Caplan, 2010) that simultaneously obtains separate estimates of arousal effects on memory for associations and memory for items. Participants studied sequentially presented words in pairs that were pure (NEGATIVE-NEGATIVE or NEUTRAL-NEUTRAL) or mixed (NEGATIVE-NEUTRAL or NEUTRAL-NEGATIVE). Cued recall tests had NEUTRAL or NEGATIVE probes and NEUTRAL or NEGATIVE targets. We found impaired memory for associations involving negative words despite enhanced item-memory (more retrievable targets). A category-list control condition explained away the item-memory enhancement but could not explain the impairment of association-memory due to arousal. A second experiment with identical structure but using higher arousing taboo words revealed increased cued recall of taboo than neutral words. However, this was exclusively mediated by item-memory effects with neither enhancement nor impairment of association-memory. Thus, although cued recall was lower for pure negative pairs and higher for pure taboo pairs, our modeling approach determined a different locus of action for these memory impairing or increasing effects: Although item memory was increased by arousal, association-memory was impaired by moderately arousing, negative words and unaffected by taboo words. Our results suggest that previous results reporting an enhancement of association-memory due to arousal may have instead been solely driven by enhanced item-memory. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.) (As Provided).
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Update	2017/4/10