PDF (PhD Thesis Susan Chipchase) - Nottingham eTheses ...

of memory for positive objects was due to attention at encoding. This attention
narrowing with scenes with negative, but not positive, objects is consistent
with one account of emotions’ effects on memory (e.g. Kensinger et al.,
2007a), which would argue for a broadening effect of positive emotion on
attention and a narrowing effect of negative emotion. However, proponents of
alternative theories of the effect of emotion on memory (Mather, 2007; Vogt,
De Houwer, Koster, Van Damme, & Crombez, 2008) may argue that the lack
of attention narrowing with scenes with a positive object may be due to the
lower average levels of arousal for positive than negative stimuli, rather than
emotional valence. This will be expanded further in the general discussion.
Section 5. Chapter Discussion
We found enhanced visual memory specificity for negative and positive
emotional objects when these were presented in isolation and when presented
on a contextual background. A central-peripheral trade-off in memory was
found for negative objects with an enhancement in memory for the central
object at the cost of memory for the peripheral background. This was in
contrast to the positive objects where the enhancement in memory for the
object was not accompanied by a detriment in memory for the peripheral
details. The same pattern of trade-offs was found when assessing specific and
general recognition, but these only reached statistical significance with specific
recognition, suggesting that these trade-offs are more sensitive to measurement
by specific than general recognition. Central-peripheral trade-offs in memory
were reflected in the measures of attention. Attention, as measured by eye
movements, was narrowed onto negative objects in a scene, but not onto
175