Kensinger Elizabeth A, Garoff-Eaton Rachel J, Schacter Daniel L
McGuinn Hall, Room 510, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2007 Jul;62(4):P208-15. doi: 10.1093/geronb/62.4.p208.
To examine how emotional content affects the amount of visual detail remembered, we had young and older adults study neutral, negative, and positive objects. At retrieval, they distinguished same (identical) from similar (same verbal label, different visual details) and new (nonstudied) objects. A same response to a same item indicated memory for visual details (specific recognition), whereas a same or similar response to a same or similar item signified memory for the general sort of object (general recognition). Both age groups showed enhanced specific recognition for negative (not positive) objects. Young adults' general recognition advantage also was restricted to negative objects, whereas older adults showed enhanced general recognition for positive and negative objects. Negative (not positive) content enhanced the visual specificity of memory in both ages, but positive content conferred a general memory advantage only for older adults.
为了研究情绪内容如何影响对视觉细节的记忆量，我们让年轻人和老年人对中性、负面和正面物体进行学习。在检索阶段，他们要区分相同（完全一样）、相似（相同的语言标签，但视觉细节不同）和新的（未学习过）物体。对相同项目的相同反应表明对视觉细节有记忆（具体识别），而对相同或相似项目的相同或相似反应则表示对该类物体有记忆（一般识别）。两个年龄组对负面（而非正面）物体的具体识别都有所增强。年轻人的一般识别优势也仅限于负面物体，而老年人对正面和负面物体的一般识别都有所增强。负面（而非正面）内容在两个年龄段都增强了记忆的视觉特异性，但正面内容仅对老年人有一般记忆优势。
