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Section 8. Experiment 2 - General Discussion
The same pattern of results was found with increased duration of photo
exposure, as with a shorter duration, with the exception that evidence of
recognition memory when followed by a RKG judgement was only found with
the longer photo exposure. No preference for previously exposed stimuli was
found. Better recognition was found for positive stimuli in a straightforward
recognition and nonanalytic recognition task. There was recognition when
followed by RKG judgement but no effect of emotional enhancement. No
recognition was found with an analytic recognition task.
Section 9. Chapter Discussion
Three key findings have emerged from these studies. Firstly, we have
replicated Whittlesea & Price’s (2001) findings showing that retrieval strategy
is important in memory for briefly presented stimuli. Secondly, we have found
emotional differences for briefly presented stimuli, when these appear they
tend to be an advantage for positive stimuli but these only seem to appear when
participants are engaged in a nonanalytic style of processing. Thirdly, a
commonly used procedure, the Remember-Know-Guess paradigm may affect
how participants do a task in a way which affects emotion. These three issues
will now be discussed in detail.
With photo exposure of 80 msec we found an emotional (positive)
advantage in traditional recognition. In addition we found the same with
nonanalytic processing at retrieval. This suggests that, as argued by Whittlesea
and Price (2001), nonanalytic processing styles at retrieval are also used during
traditional recognition tasks. This positive enhancement in memory seems to
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