Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, McGuinn Hall, Rm 300, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2022 Oct;22(5):869-903. doi: 10.3758/s13415-022-01013-z. Epub 2022 Jun 14.
The power of episodic memories is that they bring a past moment into the present, providing opportunities for us to recall details of the experiences, reframe or update the memory, and use the retrieved information to guide our decisions. In these regards, negative and positive memories can be especially powerful: Life's highs and lows are disproportionately represented in memory, and when they are retrieved, they often impact our current mood and thoughts and influence various forms of behavior. Research rooted in neuroscience and cognitive psychology has historically focused on memory for negative emotional content. Yet the study of autobiographical memories has highlighted the importance of positive emotional memories, and more recently, cognitive neuroscience methods have begun to clarify why positive memories may show powerful relations to mental wellbeing. Here, we review the models that have been proposed to explain why emotional memories are long-lasting (durable) and likely to be retrieved (accessible), describing how in overlapping-but distinctly separable-ways, positive and negative memories can be easier to retrieve, and more likely to influence behavior. We end by identifying potential implications of this literature for broader topics related to mental wellbeing, education, and workplace environments.
情景记忆的力量在于，它将过去的某个时刻带入当下，使我们有机会回忆起这些经历的细节，重新构建或更新记忆，并利用检索到的信息来指导我们的决策。在这方面，消极和积极的记忆可能特别有力：生活中的高低起伏在记忆中不成比例地被呈现出来，当它们被检索出来时，往往会影响我们当前的情绪和想法，并影响各种形式的行为。根植于神经科学和认知心理学的研究历史上一直专注于对负面情绪内容的记忆。然而，自传体记忆的研究强调了积极情绪记忆的重要性，最近，认知神经科学方法开始阐明为什么积极记忆可能与心理健康有很强的关系。在这里，我们回顾了已经提出的解释情绪记忆为什么持久（持久）和可能被检索（可访问）的模型，描述了积极和消极记忆是如何以重叠但明显可分离的方式更容易被检索，并更有可能影响行为的。最后，我们确定了这一文献对与心理健康、教育和工作场所环境相关的更广泛主题的潜在影响。
