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

of naturally occurring emotions or whether to experimentally manipulate
emotions in the controlled setting of a laboratory. The measures above could be
used to measure both types of emotion but they may interfere to a greater or
lesser extent with the feelings of the participant dependent on whether the
emotion was naturally occurring or induced. For example; a questionnaire-
based measure may provide an accurate measure of a person’s general feeling
of depression in their life, but in a laboratory experiment where the emotions
induced may be short lived a questionnaire based measure may not be so
appropriate.
Section 2.1.1. Study of naturally occurring emotions
The influence of naturally occurring emotions on cognition can be
studied by investigation of a public event which was experienced as part of
everyday life by a large number of people. One example of this type of
research was conducted by Kensinger & Schacter (2006) who examined
memory for the final game in the 2004 American League playoff series. By
comparing the experiences of people who were fans of the winning team with
fans of the losing team, Kensinger & Schacter (2006) were able to explore the
influence of positive and negative emotions on memory for the same event.
There are limitations in the use of this type of paradigm which include the
inability to control the parts of the event to which people originally paid
attention. This is one of the reasons why a great deal of research in this area is
conducted within a laboratory setting.
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