Emotional Factors in Memory

Emotional Factors in Memory

1. A01 Flashbulb Memories

   • There are some situations in which powerful negative emotions create very strong memories. This is known as Flashbulb memories
     • This tends to be detailed and long lasting memory of an event, which is usually highly significant and emotional, also unexpected
       • It can be a personal event or something, which provides a worldwide interest, for instance the death of Michael Jackson
         • CASE: Brown and Kulik (1977) First described this type of memory, which this event must be surprising and have a real consequence for the persons life.
           • They found out that 6 kinds of information were likely to be recalled of the moment of an event. E.g. when the news was first heard, where they were, what they were doing, the person who gave them the news , what they felt about it, what others felt about it and what happened in the immediate aftermath
   • What causes flashbulb memories? Brown and Kulik suggested that a special neural mechanism might be responsible for flashbulb memories, as other psychologists believe they are rehearsed or thought about so often.
     • Cahil and Mcgaugh (1998) suggested that flashbulb memories may have an adaptive function in that in times of high emotional arousal hormones are released that have a two fold effect,
       • In the short term emotional hormones create a sense of arousal that helps the individual respond to an emotionally charged situation
         • In the long tern future responses in the same emotional situation will be enhanced because the events surrounding the original emotional experience was well remembered.

2. Psychologists have often ignored the role of Emotion within cognitive processing, however it is more likely the wat we feel has an impact to how we remember things.

   • INTRODUCTION A01:
   • There is some evidence that memory is better for material similar with a persons current mood.
     • There a number of different emotional factors affecting memory, such as Flashbulb memories, repression and depressive state

3. A01 REPRESSION

   • One explanation for not being able to retrieve memory is that emotionally threatening is repressed or held from conscious awareness
     • FREUD (1915) suggested that anxiety causing material may be dealt with in a number of different ways, repression is on of these methods of ego defence. BUT it is difficult to test Freud's theory as you are unable to falsify it due to ethical issues.
       • FREUD argued that repression is caused by traumatic and other very stressful events , but is unacceptable to create such events in the laboratory
         • LEVINGER AND CLARK (1961) created a way of testing Freud's theory about repression in an ethically acceptable way. They told their participants to give free associations when presented with various neutral and negatively emotional charged words
           • The key finding was that participants took longer to recall negatively emotional charged words than to neutral ones. LEVINGER AND CLARK also found that at recall emotionally charged words produced higher GALVANIC SKIN RESPONSE, they interpretted these findings by assuming that repression slowed down participants recall of associations to the emotionally charged words.
             • This study was important for a number of reasons: as it focussed on individual differences, as it shows unpleasant association of relevance to each participant, ensuring that negative emotions were created in each individual . Also the study of LEVINGER AND CLARK provided some evidence that repression is a genuine phenomenon
               • A02: