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Chapter 4. The influence of emotion on specific visual details of memory
Chapter Introduction
In this chapter we continue to use the Same / Similar / New paradigm
(Kensinger et al., 2006) to explore the influence of emotion on memory for the
specific visual details of stimuli. For the remainder of the thesis we will be
using this paradigm to start to explore the influence of emotion at the time of
encoding new information into memory. By examining the information on
which a memory is based, Kensinger et al. (2006) addressed the controversy in
the literature over whether emotion leads to an increase in memory for details,
or for gist at the expense of memory for details (e.g. Adolphs et al., 2005). In a
series of studies, Kensinger and colleagues investigated the level of detail
contained within memories for emotional stimuli by testing recognition
memory for specific details and gist (Kensinger et al., 2006; Kensinger et al.,
2007a, 2007b).
Whilst the enhancement for negative emotion was found in a series of
studies the effects of positive emotions have not been studied so extensively.
To our knowledge, memory for details of positive stimuli has only been
investigated in a single study which found no enhancement in a younger
college student sample, although a comparison group of older adults did show
an enhancement in general memory of positive stimuli (Kensinger et al.,
2007a). Kensinger et al. (2007a) argued that an enhancement of memory for
details of negative, but not positive, emotional stimuli is consistent with
research showing that positive emotion leads to more gist-based processing,
whereas negative emotion leads to more detailed processing (Bless et al., 1996;
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