Emotion and autobiographical memory (original) (raw)
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Selective effects of emotion on the phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories
2005
The present study investigates the emotional determinants of the phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories. A total of 84 participants completed the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ, Johnson, Foley, Suengas, & Raye, 1988) after retrieving and orally describing a negative, a positive, and a neutral autobiographical memory. In addition, self-report and physiological measures of emotional state at retrieval were recorded. Results suggest that recall of perceptual, sensory, and semantic elements is better for emotional memories than for neutral ones. This difference is not significant for contextual and temporal aspects, suggesting that emotional memories are more vivid but no more specific than are neutral ones. In addition, positive memories yielded higher MCQ ratings than did negative memories for sensory, temporal, and contextual aspects. Finally, correlations suggest a positive relation between emotional state at retrieval and level of phenomenal detail of retrieved memories. Results are interpreted in terms of multilevel models of emotion and of Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) model.
Specifying what makes a personal memory unique enhances emotion regulation
Emotion, 2007
During recollection of past experiences, the way autobiographical information is processed affects the intensity of the emotion aroused. Two main hypotheses were proposed in this respect: One focuses on the type of information activated during retrieval; the second is centered on the mode of processing at work. This article defends the notion that both perspectives need to be integrated to predict emotional arousal during autobiographical recollection. The authors explored the consequences on emotional feeling intensity by manipulating the type of information processed, together with the cognitive mode activated (specific vs. general level of processing). Results support previous findings that voluntarily specifying memories reduces emotional intensity. However, this was observed only when the details that make the event unique were processed.
Towards a better integration of emotional factors in autobiographical memory
Memory. Special issue on the nature of human memory, 2021
While the role of emotion in autobiographical memory (ABM) is acknowledged in some models, its specific effects are blurred by narrow approaches towards emotion that are often limited to a distinction between intensity and valence. After presenting a critical review of the role assigned to emotion for the development of ABM, this paper surveys current perspectives which encourage a broader approach to emotion in the development of ABM. Research on Flashbulb memories provides an important context where the role of emotion has been the most extensively investigated. This paper makes three important recommendations for future research, which are to (1) provide an assessment of emotional responses that includes appraisals, action tendencies, bodily sensations, and emotion intensity; (2) investigate the role of specific emotional states; and (3) adopt systematically a multi-component approach of ABM measurement, which takes accuracy, consistency, vividness, degree of details, and confidence into account.
Differential effects of arousal in positive and negative autobiographical memories
Autobiographical memories are characterised by a range of emotions and emotional reactions. Recent research has demonstrated that differences in emotional valence (positive vs. negative emotion) and arousal (the degree of emotional intensity) differentially influence the retrieved memory narrative. Although the mnemonic effects of valence and arousal have both been heavily studied, it is currently unclear whether the effects of emotional arousal are equivalent for positive and negative autobiographical events. In the current study, multilevel models were used to examine differential effects of emotional valence and arousal on the richness of autobiographical memory retrieval both between and within subjects. Thirty-four young adults were asked to retrieve personal autobiographical memories associated with popular musical cues and to rate the valence, arousal and richness of these events. The multilevel analyses identified independent influences of valence and intensity upon retrieval characteristics at the within-and between-subject levels. In addition, the within-subject interactions between valence and arousal highlighted differential effects of arousal for positive and negative memories. These findings have important implications for future studies of emotion and memory, highlighting the importance of considering both valence and arousal when examining the role emotion plays in the richness of memory representation.
The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Recall of Negative Autobiographical Memories
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
When facing a negative event, people implement different strategies to regulate ongoing emotions. Although the previous literature has suggested that the emotional intensity of a negative episode is associated with the characteristics of the subsequent autobiographical memory, it is still unknown whether emotion regulation (ER) moderates this relationship. In the present study, we provided undergraduate students with a smartphone-based diary to report a negative episode immediately after its occurrence and rate the momentary use of two ER strategies: cognitive reappraisal and rumination. To explore autobiographical memory, two “surprise” recall tasks were performed one week and one month after the event. According to the results, cognitive reappraisal was linked with better memory performances, and a tendency to retrospectively underestimate the negativity of highly intense events was observed only in participants adopting high rates of this strategy. Conversely, intense rumination ...
Incomplete inhibition of emotion in specific autobiographical memories
Memory, 2007
Emotional inhibition in recollection of specific autobiographical memories (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) is investigated in two experiments. Less complete emotional inhibition was hypothesised to correspond to a reduced sense of psychological closure. Emotional inhibition was identified by comparing the effect of emotion words relative to lifetime period words as primes. In Experiment 1, emotion words facilitated recognition judgements of descriptions of remembered experiences rated low in closure. In Experiment 2, emotion words facilitated recognition judgements of descriptions of a laboratory experience made lower in closure. A sense of psychological closure may therefore be a prerequisite for strategic emotional inhibition. Implications for adjustment and goal pursuit are discussed.
Mood and retrieval‐induced forgetting of positive and negative autobiographical memories
Applied cognitive …, 2010
In two experiments, we examined the effects of high and low levels of dysphoria on retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) of positive and negative autobiographical memories. In Experiment 1, participants took part in an RIF procedure that was adapted for autobiographical memories. Regardless of level of dysphoria, participants showed facilitation for both negative and positive memories; they only showed RIF for negative memories. Differences in baseline memories were responsible for this effect: Participants recalled more positive than negative baseline memories. Experiment 2 was conducted to address these baseline differences, and also focused only on participants with high levels of dysphoria. Again, high dysphoric participants showed facilitation for both positive and negative memories; they only showed RIF for negative memories. Recall also varied depending on the content of practiced memories and individual differences in anxiety. Overall, these results suggest that retrievalpractice might have different outcomes for different kinds of autobiographical memories, that these outcomes may depend on individual memory biases and memory valence, and that practicing positive memories may assist mood repair.
2011
This study was designed to experimentally test the impact of the specificity of one's autobiographical memories on affect, and to examine how memory specificity may differentially impact emotional responses across development. In the literature on memory specificity, the Affect Regulation hypothesis (Williams, 1996; Williams et al., 2007) argues that recalling autobiographical memories in an overgeneral manner serves to decrease emotional distress through avoidance of the painful specific details of one's past. While there is evidence for connections between naturally-occurring variations in memory specificity and emotionregulation in adults, the relationship between memory recall style and distress has not been directly tested in an experimental manner, and no studies have examined such processes in child samples. In this study, 93 children, adolescents, and young adults (8-28 years) were randomly assigned to recall negative memories in the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) in either a