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

tasks, one reason for this may be the level of clarity in task instructions given
to participants.
In the first experimental chapter of this thesis I examined the level of
recognition memory for emotional and non-emotional stimuli when different
retrieval strategies were induced through different task instructions. These
series of experiments were adapted from an existing paradigm (Whittlesea &
Price, 2001), however, after conducting research using this paradigm the
ambiguity and lack of clarity in some of the task instructions became apparent.
Specifically, the instructions for the analytic retrieval condition relied on
attempted deception of participants in that they were instructed to identify in a
two-alternative forced choice recognition test the stimulus which had been
changed from the earlier presentation. In reality, none of the photographs had
been changed and it is possible that participants were confused by the
instructions. Indeed this may be part of the reason that their performance on
this task was at chance. As a result of these concerns I was very keen to move
to an experimental paradigm with very clear task instructions for participants
which should ensure that all participants completed the task as intended.
In using the Same / Similar / New paradigm (Kensinger et al., 2006) in this
thesis we have consistently found the same pattern of emotional enhancement
and impairment in memory across a series of experiments. This suggests the
use of such a well-controlled paradigm is effective in reducing inconsistencies
when assessing memory for central and peripheral elements of stimuli. The
lack of ambiguity in instructions to participants in the Same / Similar / New
paradigm is also apparent when comparing this to the Remember / Know /
New paradigm. The standard instructions for this paradigm (e.g. Gardiner &
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