Emotion and memory

Emotion can have a powerful effect on humans and animals. Numerous studies have shown that the most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events.

The activity of emotionally enhanced memory retention can be linked to human evolution; during early development, responsive behavior to environmental events would have progressed as a process of trial and error. Survival depended on behavioral patterns that were repeated or reinforced through life and death situations. Through evolution, this process of learning became genetically embedded in humans and all animal species in what is known as flight or fight instinct.

Artificially inducing this instinct through traumatic physical or emotional stimuli essentially creates the same physiological condition that heightens memory retention by exciting neuro-chemical activity affecting areas of the brain responsible for encoding and recalling memory.^[1]^[2] This memory-enhancing effect of emotion has been demonstrated in many laboratory studies, using stimuli ranging from words to pictures to narrated slide shows,^[3]^[4]^[5] as well as autobiographical memory studies.^[6] However, as described below, emotion does not always enhance memory.

^ Christianson, S.A.; Loftus, E. (1990). "Some characteristics of people's traumatic memories". Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 28 (3): 195–198. doi:10.3758/bf03334001.
^ Schacter, D. L. (1996). Searching for memory. New York: Basic Books.
^ Bradley, M. M.; Greenwald, M. K.; Petry, M. C.; Lang, P. J. (1992). "Remembering pictures: Pleasure and arousal in memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 18 (2): 379–390. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.18.2.379. PMID 1532823. S2CID 39913094.
^ Hamann, S.B. (2001). "Cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional memory". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 5 (9): 394–400. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01707-1. PMID 11520704. S2CID 10798311.
^ Christianson, S. A. (1992). "Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: A critical review". Psychological Bulletin. 112 (2): 284–309. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.284. PMID 1454896.
^ Conway, M. A.; Anderson, S. J.; Larsen, S. F.; Donnelly, C. M.; McDaniel, M. A.; McClelland, A.G.R.; Rawls, R.E.; Logie, R.H. (1994). "The formation of flash bulb memories". Memory and Cognition. 22 (3): 326–343. doi:10.3758/BF03200860. PMID 8007835.

[1] Christianson, S.A.; Loftus, E. (1990). "Some characteristics of people's traumatic memories". Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 28 (3): 195–198. doi:10.3758/bf03334001.

[2] Schacter, D. L. (1996). Searching for memory. New York: Basic Books.

[3] Bradley, M. M.; Greenwald, M. K.; Petry, M. C.; Lang, P. J. (1992). "Remembering pictures: Pleasure and arousal in memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 18 (2): 379–390. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.18.2.379. PMID 1532823. S2CID 39913094.

[4] Hamann, S.B. (2001). "Cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional memory". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 5 (9): 394–400. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01707-1. PMID 11520704. S2CID 10798311.

[chris92-5] Christianson, S. A. (1992). "Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: A critical review". Psychological Bulletin. 112 (2): 284–309. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.284. PMID 1454896.

[6] Conway, M. A.; Anderson, S. J.; Larsen, S. F.; Donnelly, C. M.; McDaniel, M. A.; McClelland, A.G.R.; Rawls, R.E.; Logie, R.H. (1994). "The formation of flash bulb memories". Memory and Cognition. 22 (3): 326–343. doi:10.3758/BF03200860. PMID 8007835.

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