Facial expression influences recognition memory for faces: robust enhancement effect of fearful expression.

Memory for faces is important for social interactions. However, it is unclear whether negative or positive expression affects recollection and familiarity for faces and whether the effect can be modulated by retention interval. Two experiments examined the effect of emotional expression on recognition for faces at two delay conditions. In Experiment 1 participants viewed neutral, positive, and negative (including fearful, sad, angry etc.) faces and made gender discrimination for each face. In Experiment 2 they viewed and made gender discrimination for neutral, positive, and fearful faces. Following the incidental learning they were randomly assigned into the immediate and 24-hour (24-h) delay conditions. Findings from the two experiments are as follows: (1) In the immediate and 24-h delay conditions overall recognition and recollection for negative faces (fearful faces in Experiment 2) were better than for neutral faces and positive faces. (2) In the immediate and 24-h delay conditions recollection and familiarity for positive faces was equivalent to recollection for neutral faces. (3) The enhancement effect of fearful expression on recognition and recollection was not due to greater discriminability between the old and new faces in the fearful category. The results indicate that recognition and recollection for faces and the enhancement effect of fearful expression is robust within 24 hours.