Psychology
The Effects of Tylenol on Non-Social Emotional Memory
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
10-4-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
10-4-2015 12:00 PM
Sponsor
John Bohannon (Butler University)
Description
Arousal at the time of encoding is a crucial factor in retrieval in regards to long-term retention and accuracy (Bohannon, Gratz, & Cross, 2007). Self-reported arousal at encoding is also linked with memory accuracy enhancement in free and probed recall (Julian, Bohannon, and Aue, 2009). Puga, Atkinson, & Bohannon (2012) also found an enhancing memory effect induced by emotion for peripheral information in a pre-critical slide and for athematic information in a critical scene. In the present study, we employed a new series of pre-critical, critical, and post-critical slides, counterbalancing perceptually central/peripheral items across conditions, in order to better understand the enhancing memory effects of emotion..
73 participants recalled perceptually central and peripheral items as well as thematic and athematic items from either an emotional or neutral slideshow. The emotional version showed a critical lunch slide in which a man cut off some of his fingers, followed by three more disturbing images. The neutral version was identical except for a lack of injury in the lunch scene followed by three neutral slides. Valance ratings were taken before and after the presentation of the slide show. There were also a pre- (breakfast) and post-critical (bathroom) slides.
There was a main effect of arousal such that participants in the emotional condition (M = .43) reported being more aroused overall than those in the non-emotional condition (M = -.20), F(1, 69) = 4.42, p = .03. Furthermore, participants in the emotional condition reported being significantly less pleasant after exposure to the presentation (M= -1.17) in comparison to their initial valance ratings (M = 1.5), F(1, 69) = 31.15, p < .0001. This suggests that our manipulation was successful in eliciting negative arousal in participants. Most importantly, there was a three-way interaction among slide, context, and affect group such that participants in the emotional condition (M = 4.2) recalled more thematic items than non-emotional participants (M = 3.3) in the pre-critical slide; additionally, emotional participants (M = 1.25) recalled more athematic items in the critical slide than non-emotional participants (M = .25), F(2, 138) = 5.75, p = .004. This study replicates the athematic enhancing effect in the critical slide found in Puga, Atkinson, and Bohannon (2012) and provides the basis for an emotional pre-critical slide enhancing memory effect with thematic information.
The Effects of Tylenol on Non-Social Emotional Memory
Arousal at the time of encoding is a crucial factor in retrieval in regards to long-term retention and accuracy (Bohannon, Gratz, & Cross, 2007). Self-reported arousal at encoding is also linked with memory accuracy enhancement in free and probed recall (Julian, Bohannon, and Aue, 2009). Puga, Atkinson, & Bohannon (2012) also found an enhancing memory effect induced by emotion for peripheral information in a pre-critical slide and for athematic information in a critical scene. In the present study, we employed a new series of pre-critical, critical, and post-critical slides, counterbalancing perceptually central/peripheral items across conditions, in order to better understand the enhancing memory effects of emotion..
73 participants recalled perceptually central and peripheral items as well as thematic and athematic items from either an emotional or neutral slideshow. The emotional version showed a critical lunch slide in which a man cut off some of his fingers, followed by three more disturbing images. The neutral version was identical except for a lack of injury in the lunch scene followed by three neutral slides. Valance ratings were taken before and after the presentation of the slide show. There were also a pre- (breakfast) and post-critical (bathroom) slides.
There was a main effect of arousal such that participants in the emotional condition (M = .43) reported being more aroused overall than those in the non-emotional condition (M = -.20), F(1, 69) = 4.42, p = .03. Furthermore, participants in the emotional condition reported being significantly less pleasant after exposure to the presentation (M= -1.17) in comparison to their initial valance ratings (M = 1.5), F(1, 69) = 31.15, p < .0001. This suggests that our manipulation was successful in eliciting negative arousal in participants. Most importantly, there was a three-way interaction among slide, context, and affect group such that participants in the emotional condition (M = 4.2) recalled more thematic items than non-emotional participants (M = 3.3) in the pre-critical slide; additionally, emotional participants (M = 1.25) recalled more athematic items in the critical slide than non-emotional participants (M = .25), F(2, 138) = 5.75, p = .004. This study replicates the athematic enhancing effect in the critical slide found in Puga, Atkinson, and Bohannon (2012) and provides the basis for an emotional pre-critical slide enhancing memory effect with thematic information.