Unforgettable Memories: The Impact of Emotion on Memory Recall

1. Starter • Try to describe your earliest memory to a friend (unless it’s really painful) and then suggest reasons why you remember this event so well.

2. The role of emotion in memory

3. Emotion • Emotion can affect memory in one of two ways • Enhanced memory • Flashbulb memories • Impaired memory • Repression • Mood dependant memory and depressive state

4. 1 – ENHANCED MEMORY – FLASHBULB MEMORIES • Vivid, long-lasting memories surrounding a person’s discovery of shocking events. • It seems as if the mind has "taken a picture" of the circumstances in which the news was learned. • 9/11 attacks • Princess Diana’s death. • Different from normal memories • Last a lifetime • Do not decay or change

5. Do you have a flashbulb memory? • Q. What were you doing when you heard the news about the following? • The attack on the World Trade Centre • Michael Jackson’s death • A personal event

6. Draw Three Columns • For Against Evaluation • In the appropriate column write the name/s of the researchers and one word to jog your memory of their theory/study

7. What causes flashbulb memories? • Cahill & McGaugh (1998) • Flashbulb memories occur because of the release of hormones during times of high emotion. • Hormones make memories more vivid, enhancing recall. • Adaptive behaviour - promote survival • Vivid recall of an emotional event may help the animal or human cope with any similar situation in the future.

8. What causes flashbulb memories? • Cahill & McGaugh (1995) • Injecting rats with adrenaline leads to better recall on a learning task.

9. What causes flashbulb memories? • Neisser (1982) • Flashbulb memories are much more memorable because they are repeated so often. • Exposure to news, discussion of important events and their implications creates more opportunities for rehearsal to happen

10. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Hard to test accuracy of memories • Evidence is retrospective • Loftus • Post event information e.g. leading questions • Memory can be altered easily by information received after the event. • Are flashbulb memories the same, or are they immune to this alteration?

11. 7/7 Bombings evidence of false memories

12. Experiment into false memory • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfhIuaD183I • Have a pen and paper ready !!

13. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Wright (1993) • Interviewed people about Hillsborough disaster • After five months, memories were vague, and subject to systematic biases. • Memories were a blend of their own real experiences, and information that had come after the event.

14. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Wright (1993) • Suggests flashbulb memories are not a special type of memory. • He argues that there is no difference between these memories and other memories, as they both can alter after time, and be reconstructed with post event information.

15. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • McCloskey et al (1988) • Interviewed people shortly after the Challenger disaster, and again after 9 months. • Many of the participants forgot elements of the event, and there were errors in their recall. • This also suggests that flashbulb memories are no different from normal memories.

16. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Conway et al (1994) • Challenger explosion did not have personal significance to the participants. • Tested people’s memories immediately after the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, and again after 11 months. • In the UK, 86% still had flashbulb memories • This was 29% for other countries.

17. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Conway et al (1994) • Suggests flashbulb memories exists, and are different than normal memories. • However, they may only exist for events with personal significance.

18. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Sheingold and Terry (1982) • Participants had very good memories for highly personal events which remained consistent over time. • Suggests that flashbulb memories have to have emotional importance for the person.

19. How accurate are Flashbulb memories? • Sheingold and Terry (1982) • This provides evidence for flashbulb memories as they should be memories which are consistent and unchanging. • However, there is no way to tell how accurate they were to begin.

20. Evaluation of research • Strengths: • Naturalistic. Reactions and memories formed from real life events. • Therefore high ecological validity.

21. Evaluation of research • Weaknesses • Research can lack reliability • Can not really be replicated • A lot of the research is retrospective, we can not reliably measure how accurate people’s initial memories are.

22. Test your memory ! • What is a flashbulb memory? • Who theorised that FBs were an adaptive response and different to ordinary memories? • Who disagreed with them? • What may have caused memories of 9/11 to be altered after the event? • What did Conway et al suggest events had to have for them to become flashbulb memories?

23. 2- IMPAIRED MEMORY - REPRESSION Discussion • Q. What can you remember about repression from your AS studies? (Think Freud) • Q. What sort of memories do you think may be repressed?

24. The Unconscious Thoughts Perceptions Memories Stored knowledge Fears Unacceptable sexual desires Violent motives Irrational wishes Immoral urges Selfish needs Shameful experiences Traumatic experiences The conscious. The small amount of mental activity we know about. The preconscious. Things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried. The unconscious. Things we are unaware of and can not become aware of. Bad Worse Really Bad

25. What is repression • Repression • Memories that have been locked out of our conscious awareness. • Freud argued that the unconscious stops traumatic memories from getting into to the conscious mind. • Protects the individual from experiencing guilt, embarrassment, humiliation or worry. An ego defence mechanism. • Repressed memories can cause problems in consciousness

26. What is repression • Freud’s evidence • Little Hansand Anna O • Repression is difficult to test. • Unable to access repressed thoughts • Is it there? Or just inaccessible?

27. Evidence for repression • Williams (1994) • 206 women who had suffered a sexual assault as girls • 20 years after the assault, the women were asked about being treated at a hospital when younger. • 38% had no recollection of the abuse, • Of those who did, 16% reported that they had not been able to remember at one point, but now could. • This research suggests that traumatic childhood memories can be repressed, and also recovered.

28. Evidence for repression • Williams (1994) • Evaluation: • Ecological validity • Deception and ethical issues • Can we be certain that the participants told the truth? • Can we be certain that the interviewers were unbiased?

29. Evidence for repression • Karon & Widener (1997) • Studied hundreds of cases of WWII veterans who had repressed memories of traumatic events during war. • When memories were recalled in therapy, psychological issues disappeared. • This provides support for Freud’s theory that traumatic memories repressed in the unconscious can have a negative effect on our conscious lives.

30. Evidence for repression • Karon & Widener (1997) • Evaluation • Issues with generalising from case studies • Specific type of trauma. Can we generalise? • Does it have high ecological validity?

31. Evidence for repression • Loftus and Burns (1982) • Participants were shown a film of a bank robbery. • One groups saw a violent version where a boy was shot in the face. • This group had poorer recall than the neutral video. • Suggests heightened emotion impairs memory

32. Evidence for repression • Loftus and Burns (1982) • Evaluation: • Ecological validity? • Ethical issues? • Weapon effect?

33. Evidence for repression • Levinger and Clark (1961) • Participants had to remember negative words (quarrel, angry, fear) or neutral words (window, cow, tree). • Emotional words took more time to recall. • Suggests that the emotional content of the words impaired memory.

34. Research into Repression • Conduct a small experiment on 1-3 participants as described on your sheets. • As an extension task to consolidate research methods knowledge you can answer the questions on the back at home.

35. Evidence for repression • Levinger and Clark (1961) • Evaluation • Ecological validity? • Can we be sure that it was actually repression that was taking place?

36. Evaluation - Why is repression controversial ? • Repression is difficult to test empirically and there is little scientific evidence to support it. • Many cases of recovered memories of child abuse occurred after therapy causing controversy. How do we know that the therapist didn’t implant the memory? (Compare to Loftus and shopping mall) • Many people do not forget traumatic events – how can this be explained?

37. Plenary • What does repression suggest about the effect of emotion of the memory? • How does this compare to the existence of flashbulb memories?

38. Answer these questions • How do you feel today? • Describe something that happened to you yesterday.

39. 3- IMPAIRED MEMORY – MOOD DEPENDENT MEMORY • Discussion • Q. What is depression? How do you think it could affect memory?

40. How can depression affect memory? • Antikainen et al (2001) • 174 adults with major depression who had impairments in their memory. • After 6 months of treatment for depression, it was found that a reduction in the symptoms of depression led to an improvement in memory. • This suggests that there is a relationship between depression and memory.

41. How can depression affect memory? 3 explanations • Lyketsos (2001) • Depression causes low motivation and reduced awareness. • May lead to inattentiveness. Memories are never encoded in the first place.

42. How can depression affect memory? 3 explanations • Sheline et al (1999) • Biological basis for poor memory • Women who were depressed had a reduced hippocampus • Suggested this is due to high levels of the hormone cortisol causing shrinkage • Evaluation: Correlation vs. causation?

43. Mood Dependent memory • People can remember better when in the same state of mind, be that mentally, emotionally or drug induced as when the memory was encoded • Negative recall bias • Depressed people are more likely to be able to recall unhappy or negative memories than positive or happy memories

44. Mood Dependent memory • Eich et al (1994) • Participants were asked to read a list of 16 words. For each word they had to describe either a sad or happy memory associated with it. • After 2 days the participants were asked to imagine being sad or happy and recall • Those in a sad mood were able to remember more sad memories than happy memories (and visa versa).

45. Mood Dependent memory • Eich et al (1994) • Suggests that the emotional state at the time of both encoding and recall can have an effect on memory. • Evaluation • Ethical issues • Ecological validity • Demand characteristics

46. Peer assess evaluations • Swap notes with another person and assess their evaluations of the evidence. • Have they….. • Fully and clearly explained what the issue is? • Explained it in broad terms or in the context of the study being evaluated ? • Put a star next to any evaluations you feel are not clear so that the person can have another go at home.

47. Quiz • 1. Researcher beginning with N who thought FB memories were long lasting because of rehearsal. • 2. The percentage of UK people tested who recalled Margaret Thatcher’s resignation. • 3. Who said events should have personal significance for them to become FB memories? • 4. The only way that repressed memories can be recovered according to Freud. • 5. According to Williams’ research 38% of women interviewed had no what ? • 6. A reason why recovered memories cause controversy • 7. According to Eich’s research what will affect both encoding and recall?

48. Exam style question • Describe and evaluate the role of emotion in memory (25) • You should have 300 words of description (AO1) • You should have 500 words of evaluation (AO2) • Depth and range with a clear structure • Research should be named and the year given. • Need to state how the research supports/contradicts the theory. • Note any possible issues with the research such as reliability, validity or ethics.

49. Essay Plan for Emotion and Memory. • Intro – Studies have shown various ways in which emotion effects how information is encoded and retrieved. • Par1 – Flashbulb memories – description and research evidence for and against – evaluation of evidence. • Par2 – Repression – description and research evidence – evaluation of psychodynamic theory and ethics of research/therapy • Par3 – Mood congruence and Depressive state – description, evidence, evaluation • Conclusion – Summarise and say on balance whether evidence suggests that emotion effects memory.

50. Answers • 1.Neisser • 2. 86% • 3. Conway et al • 4. Through therapy • 5. Recollection of their abuse • 6. Memories can be implanted as well as recovered • 7. Your mood at the time