Maestros Vs Computadoras

COGNITION AND EMOTION 2007, 21 (3), 495 Á521

Emotional memory for words: Separating content and context
Barbara Brierley, Nicholas Medford, Philip Shaw, and Anthony S. David
Institute of Psychiatry & GKT School of Medicine, London, UK

We developed a technique to examine the effects of emotional content and context on verbal memory. Two sets of sentences were devised: in the first, eachsentence was emotionally arousing due to the inclusion of an emotional ‘‘target’’ word. In the second set, ‘‘targets’’ were replaced with well-matched neutral words. Subjects read aloud a selection of emotional and neutral sentences, and were then surprised with memory tasks after a range of time delays. Emotional target words were remembered significantly better than neutral words in allexperiments. Recognition of emotional words was relatively stable despite increasing delays between encoding and recognition testing, in contrast to memory for neutral words, which decayed over time. Memory for neutral non-target words was enhanced when words had been presented in an emotional context. The results confirm the phenomenon of emotional enhancement of memory at short and long delays and suggestthat emotional context may be encoded independently of word meaning.

‘‘Emotional memory’’ has been defined as the enhanced, long-term, conscious recall of the facts of emotionally arousing episodes (Adolphs, Cahill, Schul, & Babinsky, 1997). Particularly salient memories of such moments resist attrition over time (Brown & Kulik, 1977), and details of the event can be recalled in depth (Heuer &Reisburg, 1990), with clarity and confidence (Burke, Heuer, & Reisburg, 1992). Recognition of such episodes may also be enhanced (see below). This enhancement may have certain costs in terms of information processing. Arousal experienced during an emotional episode appears to cause a narrowing of the focus of attention, thus the centre of the event is remembered better than the periphery. Anexample is the phenomenon of ‘‘weapon focus’’ seen in witnesses to violent crimes. Witnesses’ attention is directed to the weapon (Loftus, Loftus, & Messo, 1987) while memory for
Correspondence should be addressed to: Anthony S. David, Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, PO Box 68, Institute of Psychiatry, DeCrespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. E-mail: a.david@iop.kcl.ac.uk # 2007 Psychology Press,an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business www.psypress.com/cogemotion DOI: 10.1080/02699930600684963

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information peripheral to the crime centre is impaired, such as poor recognition of the person holding the weapon (Loftus & Burns, 1982). This differential pattern has also been described in subjects’ recall for details central and marginal to theemotional part of a story, such recall being heightened and dampened respectively (Burke et al., 1992).

METHODOLOGY
Testing for emotional memory involves the assessment of characteristically superior recognition or recall of arousing episodes. Individuals’ memories of arousing experience are difficult to assess, especially if they are to be compared meaningfully with others, because differentecological variables contribute to each person’s emotional experience (Fink, Markowitsch, Reinkemeier, Bruckbauer, Kessler, & Heiss, 1996), as well as pre-existing inter-individual differences (Canli, Zhao, Brewer, Gabrieli, & Cahill, 2000). Standardised tests are therefore required. The most widely used is that of Heuer and Reisburg (Heuer & Reisburg, 1990) since developed by Cahill and colleagues(Cahill & McGaugh, 1995b), which comprises twelve identical pictures with corresponding sentences for an emotional and neutral version of a simple story. Testing with forced choice recognition and free recall has consistently revealed significantly better memory for the arousing (middle) phase of the story. It is believed that this superiority takes time (hours or days) to develop *a process...