Reconstructing memory for emotions.

This research assessed the stability of peoples' memory for their past emotions over time and the role of changing appraisals in accounting for biases in emotion recall. Following Ross Perot's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race in July 1992, supporters (N?=?227) rated their initial emotional reactions and described their interpretations of the event. After the elections in November, supporters (N?=?147) again recalled their initial emotional reactions and described their current appraisals of Perot. In contrast to some current models, memories for past emotions were not indelible, and a general tendency to overestimate the intensity of past emotions was not observed. Rather, systematic distortions in emotion recall were found in the direction of consistency with current appraisals. These findings support the conclusion that memories for emotional responses are partially reconstructed or inferred on the basis of current appraisals of events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and Emotions for the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease, Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Healthy Older Adults.

National traumatic events can produce extremely vivid memories. Using a questionnaire administered during telephone interviews, the authors investigated emotional responses to, and memory for. the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy older adults in the initial weeks following the event and again 3-4 months later. There were several notable findings. First, patients with AD showed less memory than patients with MCI and older adults. Second, patients with AD, but not patients with MCI or older adults, appeared to retain more memory for personal versus factual information. Third, patients with AD and older adults did not differ in the intensity of their reported emotional responses to the attacks, whereas patients with MCI reported relatively less intense emotional responses. Last, distortions of memory for personal information were frequent for all participants but were more common in patients with AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On mood and peculiar people: Affect and person typicality in impression formation.

Are memories and impressions about unusual, atypical people more likely to be influenced by mood? Atypical targets were expected to elicit more extensive processing, and mood-primed associations were expected to play a greater role in such judgments. In Exp 1 (N?=?72), mood effects were stronger on judgments of atypical than of prototypical persons. In Exp 2 (N?=?42), mood effects on memory were greater for atypical targets, and recall was also better for typical people in positive mood and for atypical targets in negative mood. Exp 3 (N?=?60) replicated these findings and also found greater mood effects on processing and judgmental latencies for atypical than for typical targets. The results suggest that mood effects depend on the kind of processing strategies triggered by prototypical and atypical targets, consistent with recent multiprocess theories of affect and cognition (J. P. Forgas, 1992). The implications of the results for current affect-cognition models, as well as everyday instances of affective biases in social judgments and stereotyping, are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repression of emotionally tagged memories: The architecture of less complex emotions.

We asked subjects to recall memories of events that evoked feelings of anger, sadness, fear, and embarrassment. These memories evoked patterns of dominant and nondominant emotions. The dominant emotions evoked by the recalled events were no less intense for repressors than nonrepressors, but repressors' patterns of nondominant emotions were less intense than those of nonrepressors. The data suggested that for repressors the associative network of negative emotional memories may be more discrete and less complex than that for nonrepressors. The pattern of multivariate effects suggests that this repressive memorial architecture may serve the motive of isolating fear-associated memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal-directed memory: The role of cognitive control in older adults' emotional memory.

The present study revealed that older adults recruit cognitive control processes to strengthen positive and diminish negative information in memory. In Experiment 1, older adults engaged in more elaborative processing when retrieving positive memories than they did when retrieving negative memories. In Experiment 2, older adults who did well on tasks involving cognitive control were more likely than those doing poorly to favor positive pictures in memory. In Experiment 3, older adults who were distracted during memory encoding no longer favored positive over negative pictures in their later recall, revealing that older adults use cognitive resources to implement emotional goals during encoding. In contrast, younger adults showed no signs of using cognitive control to make their memories more positive, indicating that, for them, emotion regulation goals are not chronically activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood memory and a history of different forms of abuse.

Awidespread professional and public controversy has recently emerged regarding recovered memories of child sexual abuse, but the prevalence and nature of these memories have received limited empirical examination. This study (N?=?553 nonclinical participants) found that very similar proportions of those with histories of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse reported that they had periods without memory of their abuse (21%, 18%, and 18%, respectively). The responses of approximately one half of these participants suggested that they lacked conscious access to their abuse memories, whereas the responses from the others suggested that they had conscious access to their memories. A great deal of variance was found in the reported quality of general childhood memory and the offset of infantile amnesia, and the findings also suggest that it is normative to recover memories of childhood. Each of these variables was also unrelated to the experience of child abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval of emotional memories.

Long-term memories are influenced by the emotion experienced during learning as well as by the emotion experienced during memory retrieval. The present article reviews the literature addressing the effects of emotion on retrieval, focusing on the cognitive and neurological mechanisms that have been revealed. The reviewed research suggests that the amygdala, in combination with the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, plays an important role in the retrieval of memories for emotional events. The neural regions necessary for online emotional processing also influence emotional memory retrieval, perhaps through the reexperience of emotion during the retrieval process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source monitoring 15 years later: What have we learned from fMRI about the neural mechanisms of source memory?

Focusing primarily on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this article reviews evidence regarding the roles of subregions of the medial temporal lobes, prefrontal cortex, posterior representational areas, and parietal cortex in source memory. In addition to evidence from standard episodic memory tasks assessing accuracy for neutral information, the article considers studies assessing the qualitative characteristics of memories, the encoding and remembering of emotional information, and false memories, as well as evidence from populations that show disrupted source memory (older adults, individuals with depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or schizophrenia). Although there is still substantial work to be done, fMRI is advancing understanding of source memory and highlighting unresolved issues. A continued 2-way interaction between cognitive theory, as illustrated by the source monitoring framework (M. K. Johnson, S. Hashtroudi, & D. S. Lindsay, 1993), and evidence from cognitive neuroimaging studies should clarify conceptualization of cognitive processes (e.g., feature binding, retrieval, monitoring), prior knowledge (e.g., semantics, schemas), and specific features (e.g., perceptual and emotional information) and of how they combine to create true and false memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repressive coping: Distraction using pleasant thoughts and memories.

To avoid exposure to unpleasant or unwanted emotional material, some people may distract themselves by summoning up pleasant thoughts such as happy memories. Manipulation of negative affect might therefore result in heightened accessibility of pleasant thoughts and memories, contrary to hypotheses of mood-congruent recall. In Experiment 1, repressors were faster to recall happy memories after watching an unpleasant film than after watching a neutral film. Nonrepressors showed the opposite effect (i.e., mood-congruent memory). In Experiment 2, after an unpleasant film, repressors were faster to recall a happy memory than to recall a sad memory. In Experiment 3, repressors spontaneously generated pleasant thoughts after watching an unpleasant film, whereas nonrepressors did not. Thus, repressors apparently cope with exposure to negative affective material by accessing pleasant thoughts. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive defenses against emotional distress and the associative structure of repression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of age on involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory.

Research on aging and autobiographical memory has focused almost exclusively on voluntary autobiographical memory. However, in everyday life, autobiographical memories often come to mind spontaneously without deliberate attempt to retrieve anything. In the present study, diary and word-cue methods were used to compare the involuntary and voluntary memories of 44 young and 38 older adults. The results showed that older adults reported fewer involuntary and voluntary memories than did younger adults. Additionally, the life span distribution of involuntary and voluntary memories did not differ in young adults (a clear recency effect) or in older adults (a recency effect and a reminiscence bump). Despite these similarities between involuntary and voluntary memories, there were also important differences in terms of the effects of age on some memory characteristics. Thus, older adults’ voluntary memories were less specific and were recalled more slowly than those of young adults, but there were no reliable age differences in the specificity of involuntary memories. Moreover, older adults rated their involuntary memories as more positive than did young adults, but this positivity effect was not found for voluntary memories. Theoretical implications of these findings for research on autobiographical memory and cognitive aging are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The 120-S minute: using analysis of work activity to prevent psychological distress among elementary school teachers

To avoid exposure to unpleasant or unwanted emotional material, some people may distract themselves by summoning up pleasant thoughts such as happy memories. Manipulation of negative affect might therefore result in heightened accessibility of pleasant thoughts and memories, contrary to hypotheses of mood-congruent recall. In Experiment 1, repressors were faster to recall happy memories after watching an unpleasant film than after watching a neutral film. Nonrepressors showed the opposite effect (i.e., mood-congruent memory). In Experiment 2, after an unpleasant film, repressors were faster to recall a happy memory than to recall a sad memory. In Experiment 3, repressors spontaneously generated pleasant thoughts after watching an unpleasant film, whereas nonrepressors did not. Thus, repressors apparently cope with exposure to negative affective material by accessing pleasant thoughts. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive defenses against emotional distress and the associative structure of repression.     

Psychological, family, and peer predictors of academic outcomes in first- through fifth-grade children.

This study tested a model that posited that 3 diverse sets of academic outcomes (memory, verbal, and nonverbal aptitudes [N?=?521]; passing proficiency tests in reading and mathematics [N?=?122]; and end-of-year ratings of verbal and mathematical skills by teachers [N?=?159]) for 1st- through 5th-grade children were uniquely determined by psychological (verbal and visual-motor "school readiness" skills at kindergarten, cognitive self-control, and academic self-competence), family (behavioral involvement of an adult family member in the child's schooling), and peer (the average academic performance of members of one's peer group) factors. Verbal readiness skills were uniquely linked to 5 of the 7 academic outcomes. An outcome-specific view of what sets of factors are linked to academic performance was favored in that, of the 5 predictors, only school readiness accounted for unique portions of the variance in aptitudes; only school readiness and cognitive self-control accounted for unique portions of the variance in whether proficiency tests were passed; and only school readiness, cognitive self-control, and the academic performance of one's peer group accounted for unique portions of the variance in end-of-year ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age on phenomenology and consistency of flashbulb memories of September 11 and a staged control event.

In two studies, the special status of flashbulb memories was investigated by contrasting the effects of age on the phenomenology and consistency of flashbulb memories of September 11, over a 2-year delay period, with those of a mundane staged control event: participants learning that they had not won a small prize. Flashbulb memories produced no significant age effects for either phenomenological characteristics or test–retest consistency, as predicted by Mather's (2004) emotional compensation hypothesis. By contrast, the control event resulted in significant age effects for phenomenological characteristics (e.g., specificity and the amount of detail recalled) but not for test–retest consistency. Furthermore, in both age groups, memories of September 11 were significantly more vivid, detailed, and consistent than control memories even though the test–retest interval was twice as long for flashbulb memories. In addition, correlations between consistency scores and ratings of rehearsal were positive for control memories but negative for flashbulb memories. The theoretical implications of these findings for research on cognitive aging and flashbulb memories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing recall of childhood sexual abuse

Selective literatures providing perspective on recall of childhood sexual abuse memories are reviewed. These include known patterns of autobiographical memories in adulthood, metacognitive mechanisms, interpersonal influences, and automatic cognitive processing which can influence judgments and reports of memory recall in children and adults. Some factors in adult experience such as mood state, presence of emotional disorders, past and current relationships, and participation in psychotherapy which can influence autobiographical memory and recall of childhood events are delineated. Available studies directly exploring recovered memories of childhood abuse are considered in light of these studies. Finally, some applications to clinical work and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

Comparing recollective experience in true and false autobiographical memories.

This study investigated whether true autobiographical memories are qualitatively distinct from false autobiographical memories using a variation of the interview method originally reported by E. F. Loftus and J. Pickrell (1995). Participants recalled events provided by parents on 3 separate occasions and were asked to imagine true and false unremembered events. True memories were rated by both participants and observers as more rich in recollective experience and were rated by participants as more important, more emotionally intense, as having clearer imagery, and as less typical than false memories. Rehearsal frequency was used as a covariate, eliminating these effects. Imagery in true memories was most often viewed from the field perspective, whereas imagery in false memories was most often viewed from the observer perspective. More information was communicated in true memories, and true memories contained more information concerning the consequences of described events. Results suggest repeated remembering can make false memories more rich in recollective experience and more like true memories. Differences between true and false memories suggest some potentially distinct characteristics of false memories and provide insight into the process of false memory creation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autobiographical memory phenomenology and content mediate attachment style and psychological distress.

In 2 studies, the present research tested the phenomenology and content of autobiographical memory as distinct mediators between attachment avoidance and anxiety and depressive symptoms. In Study 1, participants (N = 454) completed measures of attachment and depressive symptoms in 1 session and retrieved and rated 2 self-defining memories of romantic relationships in a separate session. In Study 2, participants (N = 534) were primed with attachment security, attachment insecurity, or a control prime and then retrieved and rated a self-defining relationship memory. Memory phenomenology, specifically memory coherence and emotional intensity, mediated the association between attachment avoidance and depressive symptoms, whereas the negative affective content of the memory mediated the association between attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms. Priming attachment security led to retrieval of a more coherent relationship memory, whereas insecurity led to the retrieval of a more incoherent relationship memory. Discussion focuses on the construction and recollection of memories as underlying mechanisms of adult attachment and psychological distress, the importance of memory coherence, and the implications for counseling research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deficits for representational memory induced by septal and cortical lesions (singly and combined) in rats.

A differentiation was made between dispositional memory and representational memory. A delayed nonmatching-to-sample task in a T-maze operationalized this distinction. Experimental brain lesions in posterior septum and in prelimbic cortex resulted in amnesia for representational memories among male Long-Evans rats (N?=?24). Amnesia ameliorated as a function of continued reinforced postoperative testing. When lesions were placed in both structures in the same Ss, amnesia for representational memories also occurred, and with further testing, the amnesia ameliorated as indicated by group data. However, examination of the behavioral performance and the lesions in individuals revealed that when both lesions were adequate, choices remained at chance levels, suggesting permanent amnesia for representational memories. That the lesion-induced amnesia was restricted to representational memory was indicated by the fact that the Ss displayed no amnesia for dispositional memories regarding what they do in the maze. They did not act like naive Ss as they should if they had forgotten the dispositional memories necessary for successful T-maze performance. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of developmental change in children's word-problem performance.

This study was designed to examine the roles of domain-specific and general information-processing skills in developmental change in children's performance on arithmetic word problems. In 2 studies, arithmetic knowledge, processing time, memory, reading skill, and word-problem performance were measured in 8- to 12-year-olds (N?=?120 in Study 1 and N?=?155 in Study 2). Word-problem performance was predicted by arithmetic knowledge (times and errors in solving simple addition and subtraction problems) and by general information-processing skills (reading and processing time and, to a lesser extent and less consistently, memory). Results are discussed in relation to the factors that contribute to word-problem skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of perfectionism, daily stress, and depression: A test of the specific vulnerability hypothesis.

Tested whether perfectionism dimensions interact with specific stressors to predict depression. A depressed patient sample (N?=?51) and a general psychiatric sample (N?=?94) completed measures of perfectionism, hassles, and depression. Ss in Sample 2 also completed other personality measures to assess the amount of unique variance in depression. Partial support was obtained: In both samples, self-oriented perfectionism interacted only with achievement stressors to predict depression. Socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with interpersonal stress in Sample 1 and with achievement stress in Sample 2 to predict depression. Several personality variables, including socially prescribed perfectionism, accounted for unique variance in depression. The results suggest that perfectionism dimensions are associated with depression and may constitute specific vulnerability factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressive writing can increase working memory capacity.

The effect of emotional disclosure through expressive writing on available working memory (WM) capacity was examined in 2 semester-long experiments. In the first study, 35 freshmen assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings about coming to college demonstrated larger working memory gains 7 weeks later compared with 36 writers assigned to a trivial topic. Increased use of cause and insight words was associated with greater WM improvements. In the second study, students (n?=?34) who wrote about a negative personal experience enjoyed greater WM improvements and declines in intrusive thinking compared with students who wrote about a positive experience (n?=?33) or a trivial topic (n?=?34). The results are discussed in terms of a model grounded in cognitive and social psychological theory in which expressive writing reduces intrusive and avoidant thinking about a stressful experience, thus freeing WM resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)