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

esponsible for the emotional effects. Memory for the association between
central and peripheral elements of a scene and implicit memory were also
examined as it was thought these might explain the positive emotional
enhancement of memory without impairment for memory of peripheral
elements. However, no emotional enhancement of these types of memories was
found. From chapter 5 no firm conclusions could be made to explain positive
emotional enhancement of memory, however, there were some unexpected
findings regarding spatial visual attention. When stimuli were blocked into
groups by emotion the attentional narrowing observed with mixed lists of
emotional and neutral stimuli was removed but despite this the emotional
enhancement for positive and negative emotion remained. This suggested that
the narrowing of visual spatial attention is an associated, rather than causal,
factor in the enhancement of memory by negative emotion. Figures 6.3 and 6.4
summarise the experimental findings with negative emotion and positive
emotion that were reported in chapters 4 and 5. With negative emotion an
enhanced visual memory specificity was found with effects of attention
narrowing and a central-peripheral trade-off in memory, but no effects of
implicit memory or associative memory. Experimental manipulations of
blocking groups of stimuli and warning of emotion still led to visual memory
specificity but attentional narrowing effects were removed with blocked stimuli
(see Figure 6.3). With positive emotion an enhanced visual memory specificity
was found but there were no effects found of central/peripheral trade-off,
attention narrowing, implicit memory or associate memory. Experimental
manipulations of blocking groups of stimuli and providing a warning of
emotion still led to enhanced visual memory specificity (See Figure 6.4).
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