The effect of positive arousal on working memory (original) (raw)
Related papers
Psychology & Neuroscience Effect of emotionally valenced stimuli on working memory performance
Working memory (WM) is the ability to keep information cognitively in course for a brief period of time, but with enough duration as to complete a task. Few is known about how the different emotional valences of the perceived information provoke effect over WM, since it is known that for WM task performance, motivated behavior receives important emotional influence. Method, a total of 27 subjects university students, randomly selected, participated in the study. Data was acquired from 23 right handed subjects (20.22 yr mean age, SD = 1.47), 52.2% male (20.09 yr old mean age, SD = 1.7), 47.8% female (20.35 yr mean age, SD = 1.3). Instruments and procedure, influence of emotional valence in a WM task was measured using content from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), subjects were asked to remember the first image of the pair, compare the second image with it. Accuracy of response (AR) measured by the number of correct responses, and reaction times (RT) were measured for each subject. Results show that the RT is shortest for pictures with neutral valence and longest for negative valence, MANOVA statistics showed a significant main effect of emotional valence. It was found that the AR is highest for pictures with neutral valence and lowest for negative valence. Conclusions, emotionally charged IAPS pictures were processed worse than neutral ones during working memory task performance, there is an effect of emotion valence on RT, and that this is higher for negative pictures compared with positive ones.
Effect of emotionally valenced stimuli on working memory performance
Psychology & Neuroscience, 2015
Working memory (WM) is the ability to keep information cognitively in course for a brief period of time, but with enough duration so as to complete a task. Little is known about how the different emotional valences of the perceived information provoke effect over WM because it is known that for WM task performance, motivated behavior receives important emotional influence. A total of 27 university students, randomly selected, participated in the study. Data were acquired from 23 right-handed subjects (20.22 years mean age, SD ϭ 1.47), 52.2% male (20.09 years mean age, SD ϭ 1.7 years) and 47.8% female (20.35 years mean age, SD ϭ 1.3 years). The influence of emotional valence in a WM task was measured using content from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Subjects were asked to remember the first image of the pair and compare the second image with it. Accuracy of response (AR) was measured by the number of correct responses, and reaction times (RTs) were measured for each subject. Results show that the RT is shortest for pictures with neutral valence and longest for negative valence. Multivariate analyses of variance statistics showed a significant main effect of emotional valence. It was found that the AR is highest for pictures with neutral valence and lowest for negative valence. In conclusion, emotionally charged IAPS pictures were processed worse than neutral ones during WM task performance. There is an effect of emotion valence on RT, and this is higher for negative pictures compared with positive ones.
The effect of post-learning positive arousal on memory consolidation
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of post-learning pleasant arousal on memory consolidation. Sixty undergraduate students (30 men, 30 women) learned a list of 30. Each group watched one of the emotional or neutral films. Thirty minutes after watching the film, delayed free recall and recognition tests were conducted in order to assess their memory. The results of both tests which were analyzed by t-test were significantly higher in the experiment group. Positive arousal which may occur after watching a movie (as it happens in this article) has a deep effect on cognitive performance, and facilitates recalling memories and changes deciding strategies.
Effects of three levels of arousal on 3-back working memory task performance
Psychology Press, 2013
This study investigated how three levels of arousal affected performance of a 3-back working memory task. Ten female and ten male university students participated in this experiment. With pictures selected from a group test, three levels of arousal were induced––i.e., tense, neutral, and relaxed emotions. Each subject was run through the procedure three times, once for each arousal level. The procedure consisted of six phases for each arousal condition: (1) Rest 1 (2 min), (2) Picture 1 (presenting emotion arousing photos for 2 min), (3) 3-back working memory task 1 (2 min), (4) Picture 2 (presenting emotion-arousing photos for 2 min), (5) 3-back working memory task 2 (2 min), and (6) Rest 2 (2 min). The skin conductance level of electrodermal activity was also measured during all phases of the experiment. The accuracy rate of 3-back working memory task performance was the highest at a neutral emotional state, followed by relaxed and then tense emotional states. There were no significant differences in reaction time.
The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory
Background: Emotion can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on what, when and how memory is tested and whether the paradigm at hand is administered as a working memory (WM) or a long-term memory (LTM) task. Whereas emotionally arousing single stimuli are more likely to be remembered, memory for the relationship between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) appears to be worse in the presence of emotional stimuli, at least in some relational memory tasks. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task.
Affective Modulation of Working Memory Maintenance: The Role of Positive and Negative Emotions
Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 2021
The present study investigated the impact of task-irrelevant emotional images on the retention of information in spatial working memory (WM). Two experiments employed a delayed matchingto-sample task where participants had to maintain the locations of four briefly presented squares. After a short retention interval, a probe item appeared and participants were required to indicate whether the probe position matched one of the previously occupied square positions. During the retention interval, task-irrelevant negative, positive, or neutral emotional pictures were presented. The results revealed a dissociation between negative and positive affect on the participants' ability to hold spatial locations in WM. While negative affective pictures reduced WM capacity, positive pictures increased WM capacity relative to the neutral images. Moreover, the specific valence and arousal of a given emotional picture was also related to WM performance: While higher valence enhanced WM capacity, higher levels of arousal in turn reduced WM capacity. Together, our findings suggest that emotions up-or down-regulate attention to items in WM and thus modulate the shortterm storage of visual information in memory.
Current Psychology
It is already well established that the working memory system can be influenced by moods or emotional stimuli. However, the exact combined impact of these two on the performance of working memory remains a puzzle. To examine the effect that the emotional content of stimuli has on working memory performance, 90 participants performed a 2-back task with emotional content (positive, neutral, and negative words) when they were in a positive, neutral, or negative mood. Repeated-measures ANOVA with mood as between-subjects factor and emotional load as within-subjects factor revealed a main effect of emotional content for both performance accuracy and reaction times in a 2-back task, and a main effect of mood for performance accuracy. Participants reacted significantly faster to negative words independently of their mood state. They were significantly more accurate when they were in the positive mood, but when they processed positive words they were less accurate. Additionally, to test whe...
The Influence of Positive and Negative Emotions on Physiological Responses and Memory Task Scores
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2014
The present paper report results of a preliminary study devoted to investigate whether and how different induced emotional states influence physiological responses and memory task scores. Physiological responses, such as skin conductance (SCL) and heart rate (HR) values were measured from 32 university students, before, during and after they were elicited by video stimuli. The considered stimuli were able to induce positive, negative and neutral emotional states. The specific physiological activation patterns were identified and correlated with memory task scores, computed using the "Anna Pesenti" Story Recall Test (SRT). The results show significant changes in physiological values when positive (increase in HR values) and negative (increase in SCL values) emotional states are induced. Surprisingly, increased SCL values, associated to induced positive emotional states, affect the participant's memory task scores.