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

Factors unrelated to intrinsic emotion (Distinctiveness and surprise)
It is possible that the influences of emotion on cognition that are
demonstrated in experimental paradigms such as those used in this thesis may
be due to factors associated with the emotional stimuli that are not elements
intrinsic to the experience of emotion. The two factors which we will explore
in this chapter are the influence of the unexpected and surprising nature of the
emotional stimuli and the relative distinctiveness of the emotional stimuli
within the experiment as a whole.
i )Unexpected nature of emotional stimuli
The possibility that the influence of emotional stimuli may be due to
their unexpected nature has been explored particularly in studies using a one
story slide show. This has often been done by comparing memory for an
emotional, neutral and surprising version of an event. Christianson et al. (1991)
presented participants with a thematic series of slides with one critical slide in
the middle of the series on which memory was tested. This critical slide
differed depending on the condition: in the neutral condition this showed a
woman riding a bike, in the emotional condition the was woman lying on the
ground beside her bike bleeding from a head injury and in the unusual
condition the woman was carrying the bicycle on her shoulder. Enhanced
memory was found for the emotional version, whilst similar levels of memory
were found for the neutral and unusual version of an event.
However, other research has found that novelty may be important in the
relationship between emotion and memory. Hope & Wright (2007) investigated
the role of visual attention in the weapon focus effect and found that both
unusual and threatening objects may capture attention and be better
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