The Effects of Emotional Scenarios on Memory
Panel Name
Advances in Psychology: Emotion, Memory, and Social Competence
Location
Lecture Center Concourse
Start Date
3-5-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
3-5-2019 5:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Academic Major
Biology
Abstract
The emotion processing literature has shown that angry and happy emotions tend to increase individuals’ memory recall, while sad emotions typically decrease memory recall. In Kazanas (2016), an emotional advantage was found for face-name pairs when they were studied in an angry and happy context, but not in a sad context, when compared to neutral contexts. However, there was a potential confound such that the scenarios that showed an emotional advantage (happy, angry) were self-focused (e.g., you won an award) while those that did not (sad) were other-person-focused (e.g., your friend won an award). The purpose of this study was to see if changing the focus of an emotional scenario would affect the strength of participants’ memory recall. In the current experiment, participants studied face-name pairs of people they would hypothetically encounter in scenarios with a self- or other person-focus across happy, angry, sad, or neutral emotional contexts. We expect to find greatest memory recall for the face-name pairings when studied in a happy or angry emotional context, as compared to the sad and neutral contexts. This outcome will be amplified in a self-focused condition, as compared to the other- person-focused conditions.
Select Where This Work Originated From
Research Assistantship
First Faculty Advisor
Jeanette Altarriba
First Advisor Email
jaltarriba@albany.edu
First Advisor Department
Arts and Sciences
Second Faculty Advisor
Allison Wilck
Second Faculty Advisor Email
awilck@ualbany.edu
Second Advisor Department
Psychology
The Effects of Emotional Scenarios on Memory
Lecture Center Concourse
The emotion processing literature has shown that angry and happy emotions tend to increase individuals’ memory recall, while sad emotions typically decrease memory recall. In Kazanas (2016), an emotional advantage was found for face-name pairs when they were studied in an angry and happy context, but not in a sad context, when compared to neutral contexts. However, there was a potential confound such that the scenarios that showed an emotional advantage (happy, angry) were self-focused (e.g., you won an award) while those that did not (sad) were other-person-focused (e.g., your friend won an award). The purpose of this study was to see if changing the focus of an emotional scenario would affect the strength of participants’ memory recall. In the current experiment, participants studied face-name pairs of people they would hypothetically encounter in scenarios with a self- or other person-focus across happy, angry, sad, or neutral emotional contexts. We expect to find greatest memory recall for the face-name pairings when studied in a happy or angry emotional context, as compared to the sad and neutral contexts. This outcome will be amplified in a self-focused condition, as compared to the other- person-focused conditions.