The Influence of Emotion on Memory for Temporal Information

1. The Influence of Emotion on Memory for Temporal Information Arnaud D’Argembeau, Martial Van der Linden University of Geneva Emotion December 2005, Vol. 5, No. 4, p 503-507 Andrea Sweazy

2. Why Do This Study? • It has been found that contextual information is better remembered for emotional items • To determine if the emotional importance of an item affects one’s ability to pinpoint the time at which the item was originally encountered

3. Hypothesis • Individuals will be able to recall the time that items were encountered with great emotional salience (positive and negative items) more accurately and more often than items with little emotional salience (neutral items)

4. Theoretical Constructs • Memory for Temporal Information • Operational Definition: • One’s ability to recall the time of past events or the time at which an item was encountered • Measured by correcting for the change in the probability of getting a specific score by chance as a function of the number of correct recognitions (expressed as a z-score) • Item Memory • Operational Definition: • One’s ability to recall past events or items • Scored by subtracting the number of false recognitions from the number of correct recognitions

5. Participants • 48 students from the University of Geneva in Switzerland • 24 men and 24 women • Mean age of 23.7 years

6. Independent Variables • Pictures • Measured qualitatively with three levels • Positive (42) • Negative (42) • Neutral (42) • Taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) • Selected based on normative ratings of arousal and valence • Sex • Measured qualitatively with two levels • Male • Female

7. Dependent Variable • Memory • Measured quantitatively with two levels • Memory for temporal information • Item memory

8. Procedure • Participants were presented with three lists of positive, negative, and neutral pictures • After each list was presented, participants performed some arithmetic operations for 3 minutes (1 minute after the final list) • After the final list was presented, participants had to indicate if the picture had been presented during the study. If they claimed they remembered it, they then had to indicate whether it had been presented in the first, second, or third list.

9. Results: Item Memory • A 2 X 2 ANOVA was done measuring sex and picture type • Significant main effect of picture type • F=20.6 with p<.05 • Significant main effect of sex with item memory being better for women than men • F=4.44 with p=.04 • Gender X Picture Type interaction was not significant • F=.72 with p=.49

10. Results of t-Tests

11. Results: Memory for Temporal Information • A 2 X 2 ANOVA was done measuring sex and picture type • Significant main effect of picture type • F=7.8 with p<.01 • Main effect of sex approached statistical significance • F=3.44 with p=.07 • Gender X Picture Type interaction was not significant • F=.48 with p=.62

12. Results of t-Tests

13. Discussion • The study was done well • The hypothesis was somewhat correct, but only negative emotion was shown to enhance memory for temporal information • Why? • Could occur partly because a certain negative picture could have caused participants to remember a previous negative picture, developing some kind of an order for the pictures • Also could be that negative pictures may be more relevant to the goals or concerns of the participants

14. Discussion: Changes I Would Make • I would look at masculinity and femininity of participants because this may have accounted for the sex differences found in this study • I would test participants outside of Switzerland and outside of a University setting • It would also be interesting to look at older adults as well to see if the same results are obtained regarding memory for temporal information

15. Comments/Questions?