MacKenzie Graham, Powell Tim F, Donaldson David I
a School of Natural Sciences , University of Stirling , Stirling , UK.
Cogn Emot. 2015;29(2):236-50. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2014.911145. Epub 2014 May 2.
Despite widespread belief that memory is enhanced by emotion, evidence also suggests that emotion can impair memory. Here we test predictions inspired by object-based binding theory, which states that memory enhancement or impairment depends on the nature of the information to be retrieved. We investigated emotional memory in the context of source retrieval, using images of scenes that were negative, neutral or positive in valence. At study each scene was paired with a colour and during retrieval participants reported the source colour for recognised scenes. Critically, we isolated effects of valence by equating stimulus arousal across conditions. In Experiment 1 colour borders surrounded scenes at study: memory impairment was found for both negative and positive scenes. Experiment 2 used colours superimposed over scenes at study: valence affected source retrieval, with memory impairment for negative scenes only. These findings challenge current theories of emotional memory by showing that emotion can impair memory for both intrinsic and extrinsic source information, even when arousal is equated between emotional and neutral stimuli, and by dissociating the effects of positive and negative emotion on episodic memory retrieval.
尽管人们普遍认为情绪会增强记忆，但证据也表明情绪会损害记忆。在此，我们检验基于客体绑定理论所激发的预测，该理论认为记忆增强或损害取决于要检索的信息的性质。我们在源检索的背景下研究情绪记忆，使用效价为负面、中性或正面的场景图像。在学习阶段，每个场景都与一种颜色配对，在检索阶段，参与者报告识别出的场景的源颜色。至关重要的是，我们通过使各条件下的刺激唤醒程度相等来分离效价的影响。在实验1中，学习阶段场景周围有颜色边框：发现负面和正面场景的记忆均受损。实验2在学习阶段使用叠加在场景上的颜色：效价影响源检索，仅负面场景的记忆受损。这些发现对当前的情绪记忆理论提出了挑战，表明情绪会损害对内在和外在源信息的记忆，即使情绪刺激和中性刺激之间的唤醒程度相等，并且通过区分正面和负面情绪对情景记忆检索的影响。
