Department of Psychology, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Memory. 2012;20(7):771-8. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2012.704049. Epub 2012 Aug 9.
Autobiographical memories are characterised by a range of emotions and emotional reactions. Recent research has demonstrated that differences in emotional valence (positive vs. negative emotion) and arousal (the degree of emotional intensity) differentially influence the retrieved memory narrative. Although the mnemonic effects of valence and arousal have both been heavily studied, it is currently unclear whether the effects of emotional arousal are equivalent for positive and negative autobiographical events. In the current study, multilevel models were used to examine differential effects of emotional valence and arousal on the richness of autobiographical memory retrieval both between and within subjects. Thirty-four young adults were asked to retrieve personal autobiographical memories associated with popular musical cues and to rate the valence, arousal and richness of these events. The multilevel analyses identified independent influences of valence and intensity upon retrieval characteristics at the within- and between-subject levels. In addition, the within-subject interactions between valence and arousal highlighted differential effects of arousal for positive and negative memories. These findings have important implications for future studies of emotion and memory, highlighting the importance of considering both valence and arousal when examining the role emotion plays in the richness of memory representation.
自传体记忆的特点是一系列的情绪和情绪反应。最近的研究表明，情绪效价（积极与消极情绪）和唤醒度（情绪强度的程度）的差异会对检索到的记忆叙述产生不同的影响。尽管情绪效价和唤醒度的记忆效应都已经得到了广泛的研究，但目前尚不清楚情绪唤醒对积极和消极自传事件的影响是否相同。在当前的研究中，使用多层模型来检查情绪效价和唤醒度对自传记忆检索丰富度的差异影响，包括在个体之间和个体内部。三十四名年轻人被要求检索与流行音乐线索相关的个人自传记忆，并对这些事件的效价、唤醒度和丰富度进行评分。多层次分析确定了效价和强度对个体内部和个体之间检索特征的独立影响。此外，效价和唤醒度之间的个体内部交互作用突出了唤醒度对积极和消极记忆的不同影响。这些发现对情感和记忆的未来研究具有重要意义，强调在研究情绪在记忆表现丰富度中的作用时，同时考虑效价和唤醒度的重要性。
