Sex-related impairment of memory for emotional events with beta-adrenergic blockade

On the basis of recent evidence indicating a sex-related lateralization of amygdala function in memory for emotional events, together with substantial evidence suggesting hemispheric specialization in processing global (central) versus local (detail) aspects of a situation, and the established dependence of the amygdala's memory modulating function on beta-adrenergic receptor activation, we predicted differential effects of a beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist (propranolol) on long-term memory for an emotionally arousing story in men and women. Specifically, we predicted that, relative to placebo, propranolol would impair memory for information central to the story line, but not memory for peripheral story details in men. Conversely, propranolol would impair memory for peripheral details, but not for central information in women. Here we confirm this prediction with a novel analysis of data from our two published studies of propranolol's effect on memory for an emotionally arousing story. These findings demonstrate a sex-related impairment of memory for emotional information by beta-adrenergic blockade. Additionally, they provide support for the hypothesis that, in this paradigm, emotional arousal enhances long-term memory for central information in men via activation of right amygdala/hemisphere function, and enhances long-term memory for peripheral details in women via activation of left amygdala/hemisphere function.     

老年人对情绪性事件的情景模拟:回忆过去与想象未来

研究采用自传体访谈技术,首次考察了老年人在对情绪性事件进行回忆和想象中生成的内部细节和外部细节数量,及其对回忆和想象内容的主观评估。结果发现:(1)无论是回忆还是想象任务,老年人都比年轻人提供了更少的内部细节和略多的外部细节;(2)与年轻人相似,老年人在想象未来积极事件时产生了更多的内部细节,表现出对积极信息的加工偏好;(3)老年人比年轻人更倾向于认为想象的事件与过去发生的事件相似度高,表明该群体在想象过程中更多地依赖了过去的记忆。该结果揭示了老年人对情绪性事件的回忆和想象特点,说明在回忆和想象过程中出现的与年龄有关的缺陷同样会体现在情绪性事件中,这很好地支持了建构性情景模拟假说。     

Emotional information in body and background hampers recognition memory for faces

Emotional influences on memory for events have long been documented yet surprisingly little is known about how emotional signals conveyed by contextual cues influence memory for face identity. This study investigated how positively and negatively valenced contextual emotion cues conveyed by body expressions or background scenes influence face memory. The results provide evidence of emotional context influence on face recognition memory and show that faces encoded in emotional (either fearful or happy) contexts (either the body or background scene) are less well recognized than faces encoded in neutral contexts and this effect is larger for body context than for scene context. The findings are compatible with the hypothesis that emotional signals in visual scenes trigger orienting responses which may lead to a less elaborate processing of featural details like the identity of a face, in turn resulting in a decreased facial recognition memory.     

Memory for the 2008 presidential election in healthy ageing and mild cognitive impairment

The present study examined memory accuracy and confidence for personal and public event details of the 2008 presidential election in healthy older adults and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Participants completed phone interviews within a week after the election and after a 10-month delay. MCI patients and healthy older adults had comparable emotional reactions to learning the outcome of the election, with most people finding it to be a positive experience. After the delay period, details about the election were better remembered by all participants than a less emotionally arousing comparison event. However, MCI patients had more difficulty than healthy older adults correctly recalling details of public information about the election, although often the MCI patients could recognise the correct details. This is the first study to show that MCI patients' memory can benefit from emotionally arousing positive events, complementing the literature demonstrating similar effects for negative events.     

NEVER forget: negative emotional valence enhances recapitulation

A hallmark feature of episodic memory is that of “mental time travel,” whereby an individual feels they have returned to a prior moment in time. Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience methods have revealed a neurobiological counterpart: Successful retrieval often is associated with reactivation of a prior brain state. We review the emerging literature on memory reactivation and recapitulation, and we describe evidence for the effects of emotion on these processes. Based on this review, we propose a new model: Negative Emotional Valence Enhances Recapitulation (NEVER). This model diverges from existing models of emotional memory in three key ways. First, it underscores the effects of emotion during retrieval. Second, it stresses the importance of sensory processing to emotional memory. Third, it emphasizes how emotional valence – whether an event is negative or positive – affects the way that information is remembered. The model specifically proposes that, as compared to positive events, negative events both trigger increased encoding of sensory detail and elicit a closer resemblance between the sensory encoding signature and the sensory retrieval signature. The model also proposes that negative valence enhances the reactivation and storage of sensory details over offline periods, leading to a greater divergence between the sensory recapitulation of negative and positive memories over time. Importantly, the model proposes that these valence-based differences occur even when events are equated for arousal, thus rendering an exclusively arousal-based theory of emotional memory insufficient. We conclude by discussing implications of the model and suggesting directions for future research to test the tenets of the model.     

Effects of repeated retrieval of central and peripheral details in complex emotional slides

Research has demonstrated that repeated retrieval enhances memory for practised verbal information, but undermines correct recall of unpractised related verbal information, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). This paper addresses the question of what happens with memory for unrehearsed aspects of an emotional picture when retrieval of other aspects of that picture is practised. In two experiments we investigated whether repeated retrieval of certain details of negative emotional slides undermines recall of unrehearsed details of such slides. In Experiment 1 retrieval of peripheral details was practised. The results demonstrated that recall for peripheral details was enhanced. However, correct recall of unpractised central details remained unaffected. Furthermore, retrieval practice did not alter the number of commission errors. Experiment 2 revealed that repeated retrieval of central details enhanced memory for these details. Although more commission errors were produced, again correct recall was not impaired for the unrehearsed central and peripheral details. This failure to find retrieval-induced forgetting effects for complex visual material is at odds with the RIF literature, and potential reasons for this are discussed. The data also extend previous studies in demonstrating that extensive retrieval can increase the number of commission errors.     

人类情绪记忆的行为遗传学与神经遗传学研究进展述评

情绪记忆及其增强效应存在广泛的个体差异,这种个体差异可能有其神经与遗传基础。近来的行为遗传学与神经遗传学证实人类ADRA2B基因缺失突变以及BDNF Val66Met基因的多态性与情绪记忆增强及其神经机制的个体差异相联系。本文重点介绍与人类情绪记忆相关的这两种基因,梳理了行为与神经遗传学研究的最新进展,指出未来应关注更多候选基因,并重视多个脑区之间的交互作用;还应使用情绪面孔刺激探索BDNF Val66Met基因多态性对情绪记忆编码和提取的影响等。     

Hands up! A study of witnesses' emotional reactions and memories associated with bank robberies

This article presents some empirical findings concerning memory for violent real-life events. Witnesses who had observed a bank robbery, either as a victim or a bystander, were interviewed and studied with respect to emotional reactions and memory for detailed information about the robbery. The consistency of the witnesses' accounts was measured by a comparison of information gathered in the police reports and the recollection given in a research interview. Overall, the results showed relatively high accuracy rates after an extended time interval with respect to specific details about the robbery (e. g. action, weapon, clothing). For some details, however, the witnesses showed a rather low performance (e. g. colour of eyes and hair, and details of the surrounding circumstances). There was no significant relationship between rated degree of emotion and the number of details remembered. These findings contradict the negative relationship between stress and memory that many experts on eyewitness testimony believe in (Kassin, Ellsworth, and Smith, 1989). Points of commonality in findings from real-life studies and simulation studies are discussed.     

Specifying what makes a personal memory unique enhances emotion regulation

During recollection of past experiences, the way autobiographical information is processed affects the intensity of the emotion aroused. Two main hypotheses were proposed in this respect: One focuses on the type of information activated during retrieval; the second is centered on the mode of processing at work. This article defends the notion that both perspectives need to be integrated to predict emotional arousal during autobiographical recollection. The authors explored the consequences on emotional feeling intensity by manipulating the type of information processed, together with the cognitive mode activated (specific vs. general level of processing). Results support previous findings that voluntarily specifying memories reduces emotional intensity. However, this was observed only when the details that make the event unique were processed.     

When can we choose to forget? An ERP study into item-method directed forgetting of emotional words

Emotionally arousing information is treated in a specialised manner across a number of different processing stages, and memory for affective events is often found to be heightened by virtue of this. However, in some cases, emotional experiences might be the very ones that we would like to forget. Here, two item-method directed forgetting studies are presented which investigate people's ability to intentionally forget affective words when stimuli and memory instructions are presented simultaneously. In the first experiment an interaction between task instruction and emotional content was evident in a diminished directed forgetting effect for emotional words, suggesting that they may be relatively resistant to deliberate forgetting. The interaction between instruction and emotion appeared both in free recall of words and in a yes-no recognition task. In the second study, an ERP procedure was utilised to investigate whether emotion modulates the effects of instruction during the initial encoding of stimuli. Recognition data again showed a clear interaction between instruction and emotion, with a reduced directed forgetting effect for emotional words. The ERP data demonstrated evidence for individual effects of both emotion and instruction during encoding; however, despite this, no evidence for an interaction between these factors was evident in the ERP data. As such, we conclude that even when study items are presented simultaneously with their associated memory instructions, neither does emotion prevent differential processing of directed forgetting instruction, nor does memory instruction prevent differential processing of emotion during early encoding. Implications are discussed in relation to the directed forgetting literature and more broadly with respect to circumstances under which emotion and cognitive processing work in parallel or in competition with each other.     

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.     

Emotion regulation and memory: the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool

An emerging literature has begun to document the affective consequences of emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about whether emotion regulation also has cognitive consequences. A process model of emotion suggests that expressive suppression should reduce memory for emotional events but that reappraisal should not. Three studies tested this hypothesis. Study 1 experimentally manipulated expressive suppression during film viewing, showing that suppression led to poorer memory for the details of the film. Study 2 manipulated expressive suppression and reappraisal during slide viewing. Only suppression led to poorer slide memory. Study 3 examined individual differences in typical expressive suppression and reappraisal and found that suppression was associated with poorer self-reported and objective memory but that reappraisal was not. Together, these studies suggest that the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool may vary according to how this is done.     

Autobiographical memories for the September 11th attacks: Reconstructive errors and emotional impairment of memory

College students were asked about their personal memories from September 11, 2001. Consistency in reported features over a 2-month period increased as the delay between the initial test and 9/11 increased. Central features (e.g., Where were you?) were reported with greater consistency than were peripheral features (What were you wearing?) but also contained a larger proportion of reconstructive errors. In addition, highly emotional participants demonstrated poor prospective memory and relatively inconsistent memory for peripheral details, when compared with less emotional participants. Highly emotional participants were also more likely to increase the specificity of their responses over time but did not exhibit greater consistency for central details than did less emotional participants. The results demonstrated reconstructive processes in the memory for a highly consequential and emotional event and emotional impairment of memory processing of incidental details.     

Autobiographical memory impairment in chronic schizophrenia: Significance and clinical correlates

Previous studies of autobiographical memory (AM) in schizophrenia yielded a reduction of specificity, richness of details and conscious recollection, which indicate both, quantitative and qualitative AM changes. However, their associations with psychopathological symptoms and neuropsychological deficits were not resolved. Therefore, we sought to investigate AM with respect to psychopathology and neuropsychology in patients with chronic schizophrenia to rule out the influence of different courses of the disease. AM of four lifetime periods was examined in 75 patients and 50 healthy controls by using a semi-structured interview. The recalled episodes were rated for memory specificity. Subsequently, one single event of each period of life was rated for details and experiential aspects of reliving (originality, vividness/visual imagery, emotional re-experiencing and emotional valence). When contrasted with healthy controls, patients recalled a significantly reduced number of episodes and personal semantic facts; moreover, memory specificity of AM was significantly lower in patients than controls. While the richness of details calculated for single events showed only minor, non-significant group differences, vividness and emotional re-experiencing were significantly less pronounced in the patient group. Along with this, AM performance correlated significantly with negative symptoms including apathy as well as verbal memory and executive functions. Our results underline the significance of overgenerality as a key feature of AM in schizophrenia as well as a dissociation between intact number of details of single events and reduced vividness and emotional re-experiencing. The extent of negative symptoms including apathy and impairments of verbal memory/executive functions may explain AM deficits in chronic schizophrenia.     

Anxiety as a Barrier to Information Processing in the Event of a Cyberattack

As postindustrial societies become more dependent on technology, they also become encumbered by greater risk. With the mounting news reports of cyberattacks, a common reaction to these technology‐based hazards is anxiety. Whether anxiety enhances or erodes information processing is a topic of debate in previous literature, and equally uncertain is whether mass anxiety facilitates or hobbles the public's ability to contemplate current events. In light of three theoretical models in the basic research of anxiety, we hypothesized that (1) anxious participants are less able to recall the information in a news report of cyberattack than their nonanxious counterparts, (2) they become increasingly inept at recalling the details as the storyline unfolds, and (3) this impairment is unique to anxiety. Participants in Study 1 (130 college students) and Study 2 (392 American adults) viewed a news story of a cyberattack and then reported their emotional states and their levels of understanding of the various parts of the report—except that the anxiety in Study 1 was naturalistic, and in Study 2, experimentally manipulated. Results from both studies showed that anxiety undermined recall performance. In addition, Study 1 found that the recall was worse towards the middle and the end of the news story and that other emotions were not significantly associated with memory deficit. Anxiety is discussed as a barrier for the public to stay informed about cyberattacks.     

Trade-offs in visual attention and the enhancement of memory specificity for positive and negative emotional stimuli

Emotional influences on memory can lead to trade-offs in memory for gist or detail and trade-offs in memory for central or peripheral aspects of an event. Attentional narrowing has often been proposed as a theoretical explanation for this pattern of findings with negative emotion. These trade-offs have been less extensively investigated with positive emotion. In three experiments, we investigate memory for specific visual details of positive and negative stimuli, examine central–peripheral trade-offs in memory, and assess the hypothesis that attentional narrowing contributes to emotional enhancement of memory specificity. We found that memory for details was enhanced by negative and positive emotion. Central–peripheral trade-offs were found in memory for negative emotional stimuli but not in memory for positive emotional stimuli. These trade-offs with negative emotion were associated with attentional narrowing at the time of encoding, as measured by eye movements. There were no attentional effects at the time of encoding found with positive emotional stimuli. Evidence was found for the attentional narrowing hypothesis of memory specificity and central–peripheral trade-offs in memory for negative emotional events. Alternative explanations for the positive emotional enhancement of memory specificity are required.     

Emotional arousal and memory: a test of the poststimulus processing hypothesis

Emotional arousal is believed to enhance memory for details central to an episode but impair memory for peripheral details. However, new research suggests that arousal induced thematically (i.e., through involvement with an unfolding event) produces only memory enhancements. This article examines whether consciously controlled elaborative processing in the aftermath of an arousing experience is responsible. A dual task manipulation was used to prevent participants from ruminating over a video that depicted an abduction and attack. Several indices of recall showed greater memory for emotional event details than for details from a neutral control video, which remained the case when the opportunity for post-stimulus elaboration was prevented. Thus, superior retention of the content of emotional experiences may arise from the way in which arousal is induced rather than through immediate postevent cognitions.     

Goal-relevant situations facilitate memory of neutral faces

Emotional situations are typically better remembered than neutral situations, but the psychological conditions and brain mechanisms underlying this effect remain debated. Stimulus valence and affective arousal have been suggested to explain the major role of emotional stimuli in memory facilitation. However, neither valence nor arousal are sufficient affective dimensions to explain the effect of memory facilitation. Several studies showed that negative and positive details are better remembered than neutral details. However, other studies showed that neutral information encoded and coupled with arousal did not result in a memory advantage compared with neutral information not coupled with arousal. Therefore, we suggest that the fundamental affective dimension responsible for memory facilitation is goal relevance. To test this hypothesis at behavioral and neural levels, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study and used neutral faces embedded in goal-relevant or goal-irrelevant daily life situations. At the behavioral level, we found that neutral faces encountered in goal-relevant situations were better remembered than those encountered in goal-irrelevant situations. To explain this effect, we studied neural activations involved in goal-relevant processing at encoding and in subsequent neutral face recognition. At encoding, activation of emotional brain regions (anterior cingulate, ventral striatum, ventral tegmental area, and substantia nigra) was greater for processing of goal-relevant situations than for processing of goal-irrelevant situations. At the recognition phase, despite the presentation of neutral faces, brain activation involved in social processing (superior temporal sulcus) to successfully remember identities was greater for previously encountered faces in goal-relevant than in goal-irrelevant situations.     

国外关于幼儿道德判断的近期研究

简要介绍国外近年来从信息加工和情绪归因的角度对幼儿道德判断进行的研究。这些研究揭示：幼儿道德判断受记忆、理解因素的影响;其发展表现为整合信息能力和根据不同情境分化地使用不同判断标准的能力不断提高;幼儿道德认知与情绪反应有不一致的现象。     

POSITIVE EMOTIONS ENHANCE RECALL OF PERIPHERAL DETAILS

Emotional arousal and negative affect enhance recall of central aspects of an event. However, the role of discrete emotions in selective memory processing is understudied. Undergraduates were asked to recall and rate autobiographical memories of eight emotional events. Details of each memory were rated as central or peripheral to the event. Significance of the event, vividness, reliving and other aspects of remembering were also rated for each event. Positive affect enhanced recall of peripheral details. Furthermore, the impairment of peripheral recall was greatest in memories of anger, not of fear. Reliving the experience at retrieval was negatively correlated with recall of peripheral details for some emotions (e.g., anger) but not others (e.g., fear), irrespective of similarities in affect and intensity. Within individuals, recall of peripheral details was correlated with less belief in the memory's accuracy and more likelihood to recall the memory from one's own eyes (i.e., a field perspective).