Memory and Emotion

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Memory and Emotion

• Dr. Sophia King
• Rm. P24 HWB
• sk219_at_le.ac.uk

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Cognition and Emotion

• Emotions can be thought of as mental states which
  are both influenced by and can influence our
  outward behaviour
• Mood strongly related to the concept of emotions
  
• A more general state of mind that can encompass
  several similar types of emotions (the idea of a
  bad mood)
• The study of Cognition is the study of mental
  process that allow us to interact in and with the
  world
• The brain as an Information processor

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Memory and Emotion

• Memory can be thought of as a mental process that
  enables the acquisition, storage, and retrieval
  of information
• What interaction is there between emotions and
  memory?
• Zajonc (1980) stated that cognition and emotion
  are completely separate and should be treated as
  such
• Lazarus (1982, 1984) stated that cognitive
  appraisals are necessary for the production of
  emotional states
• Memory as a vital part of cognition shown to be
  inaccurate and fallible under certain influences,
  could emotional states be one of these
  influences?

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Research into Memory and Emotion

• Why might emotion in general have an effect on
  memory (beyond the effect of positive or
  negative)?
• Personal variables emotional states as
  individual differences
• Individual differences in moods can have an
  effect on what exactly is remembered
• Depression as a result of the influence of mood
  on memory
• Encoding specificity emotion as a context for
  memory. Emotion as an internal context
• Mood-congruency
• State dependent Recall

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Mood and Memory

• We can make distinctions between the effect of
  emotion on memory at Storage or Retrieval
• Storage
• Mood state-dependency if the mood state at
  recall matches the mood state at encoding then
  the material will be remembered more easily
  (regardless of what the material is)
• Retrieval
• Mood-congruency being in a certain mood will
  tend to evoke memories that are consistent with
  that particular mood (e.g. being happy,
  remembering only the positive events of the day)

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Mood and Memory
Information encoded
Information encoded
Increased accuracy in recall of Information
Increased accuracy in recall of positive aspects
of information
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Mood and Retrieval Mood-State Dependency

• When forming memories the individual is in a mood
  state. If they are in the same mood state at the
  time of recall then recall accuracy is improved.
  The actual mood state is irrelevant. What is
  important is that the moods at encoding and
  retrieval match
• Goodwin et al. (1969)
• Tested participants recall for a memory test.
  They studied either drunk or sober and were
  tested drunk or sober
• Although recall rates were generally impaired for
  drunken recall, if the study and test phase moods
  were matched recall rates were improved
• Effects have also found with smoking (Peters
  McGee, 1982) and Ritalin (Swanson Kinsbourne,
  1976)

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Mood-State Dependency Research

• Leight Ellis (1981) used naturally occurring
  moods
• Participants were induced into happy or sad moods
  using the Velten (1968) task
• Participants took part in a list-learning task.
  Lists were made up of nonsense trigram
  (consonant-vowel-consonant) doublet words (e.g.
  BONKID), that were tested for recall and
  recognition
• State-dependency was found in an impairment of
  recognition due to discordant moods at learning
  and test
• Mecklenbräuker Hager (1984)
• Induced elation or depression using the Velten
  task
• Found SD effects (though these were much more
  evident for elation exposure)

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Mood-State Dependency Research II

• Not all research has provided support for
  State-Dependency
• Bower, Monterio, Gilligan (1978)
• Hypnotized participants into happy and sad moods
• State-dependency was not seen except in a delayed
  recall test with interference
• Kenealy (1994) points out several flaws with many
  of the state-dependency studies
• Mood induction method is often confounded at time
  of encoding and time at retrieval
• No objective measures of initial learning are
  recorded

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Mood-State Dependency Research III

• Kenealy attempted to address some of these
  issues
• Compared the use of the Velten task and a musical
  MIP
• Experiment 1a used the Velten task for induction
  at both learning and testing
• Experiment 1b used the musical task for induction
  at both learning and testing
• Experiment 1c used one task for induction at
  learning and the other task at testing
• Participants were required to learn a sequence of
  directions based on a geographical map
• State-dependency was found across task types
  participants recalled fewer words if there was a
  discrepancy between moods

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Mood and Memory Storage Mood-Congruency

• Mood-congruency our memory is for specific types
  of information when that information matches our
  mood
• Positive memories are more easily accessible when
  you are in a positive mood. Negative memories are
  more easily accessible when you are in a negative
  mood
• Teasdale and Fogarty (1979)
• Used the Velten Mood Induction Technique Induced
  certain mood in participants by getting them to
  read out either negative or positive statements
• Participants in negative or anxious moods were
  slower at remembering positive events

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Research into Mood-Congruency

• Bower, Gilligan, Monteiro (1981)
• Hypnotically induced mood states in participants
  (happy/ sad). They then read a story about two
  men playing tennis, one man was happy and one was
  sad
• The next day participants were asked to recall as
  many facts about the story as possible
• Those who read the story while sad recalled 80
  of the sad facts, and 20 of the happy facts
• Those who read the story while happy recalled 50
  of the sad facts, and 50 of the happy facts

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Research into Mood-Congruency II

• Erber Erber (1994)
• Participants had a particular mood induced
  (positive/negative) and were asked to freely
  recall any particular event either at the
  beginning or end of a class session
• Participants in negative moods remembered
  positive events but only if asked to recall at
  the beginning of the class session
• Sedikides (1994)
• Participants were induced into a negative,
  neutral or positive mood then asked to write
  self-descriptions
• For negative moods, at first descriptions were
  mood congruent, but became more positive as they
  went along

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Research into Mood-Congruency III

• To explain these results, some researchers
  suggested that a focused effort was being made to
  repair the negative mood state by explicitly
  focusing on positive memories
• Rusting (1999) suggested that beyond the moods
  that are specifically induced for mood-congruency
  studies, these results may actually be explained
  by personality differences between participants
• Used either induced mood states for the test
  phase, or got participants to report their
  naturally occurring moods at both stages
• As well as MC effects using induced moods,
  participant who scored higher on positive
  emotional trait scale showed positive MC and vice
  versa

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Mood-Congruency and Depression

• Lloyd and Lishman (1975)
• Looked at depressed patients ability to produce
  autobiographical memories in response to neutral
  words
• The more depressed the patient the faster the
  recollection of negative memories
• Johnson, Petzel, Hartney, Morgan (1983)
• Compared depressed and non depressed students
  ability to remember the content of a series of
  tasks, on which they had been successful/unsuccess
  ful
• Recall for depressed participants was greater for
  tasks which had been completed unsuccessfully,
  while non depressed students recall successful
  tasks better

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Effect of Emotion on Memory

• Both state-dependent and mood-congruent findings
  show the influence that emotion can have on
  memory
• Bower (1981, 1987, 1991) suggested that
  mood-congruent and state-dependency findings can
  be explained by a Network Theory of Affect
• Memory seen as a network of interconnected nodes
• Emotions are part of this network
• Spreading activation from emotion and memory
  nodes brings up related information within the
  network
• Emotion nodes can cue retrieval of previously
  stored information, or filter the nature of
  incoming material through spreading activation of
  the network

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Bowers Network Theory of Affect
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Bowers Network Theory and Depression

• Memory and emotion as part of a feedback
  producing network of interconnected nodes
• State-dependency as result of connection between
  mood at encoding and information taken in
• Mood-congruency as results of spreading
  activation of network
• Ingram (1984)
• Depressed people have a depression-emotion node
  that has become activated
• Negative cognitions are recycled continuously
  depression as a vicious cycle of negative
  mood-negative thoughts-negative mood

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Criticisms of Bowers Network Theory

• The varied findings for state-dependent effects
• Not always found be certain studies (e.g. Bower,
  Monterio, Gilligan 1978)
• Issues with network theorys thoughts on
  depression
• Depressive states are not always permanent
• How much of Mood congruency is automatic and how
  much can be controlled by the individual?
• Sedikides findings of mood-incongruency
• Blaney (1986) In the case of depressed
  individuals, explicitly focusing on positive
  memories could help to overcome the depressed
  mindset.

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Emotion and Memory

• What can all this research tell us about emotion
  and memory?
• Memory can be influenced by emotion and mood
  states
• Mood as an internal context
• Mood as a retrieval cue
• Emotions may well be part of our memory structure
• Network theory of emotion
• Memory, emotion, and the cause of depression
• Rusting (1994) points to affect of personality
  traits, as well as moods on memory

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References and Further Reading

• Again the reading for this topic is from review
  journal articles. Both are available through the
  Library online catalogue and Leicester e-link
• Blaney (1986). Affect and Memory A Review.
  Psychological Bulletin, 99(2) 229-246
• Mathews, A. Macleod, C. (1994). Cognitive
  approaches to emotion and emotional disorders.
  Annual Review of Psychology 45 25-50