TITLE:
Effects of Emotional Context during Encoding: An Advantage for Negative Context in Immediate Recognition and Positive Context in Delayed Recognition
AUTHORS:
Asako Toyama, Maya Katsuhara, Yoshio Sakurai, Hideki Ohira
KEYWORDS:
Emotional Context, Recognition of Words, Retention Interval
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.9,
July
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: This
study examined the effect of emotional context on recognition memory for
neutral targets over time. Participants (N = 36) read sentences with negative,
neutral, or positive valence in which emotionally neutral target words were
embedded. Two groups of participants were asked to recognize targets after
different retention intervals, immediate and 24-hour. Performance was better in
the immediate recognition group than that in the delayed recognition group. The
two groups showed opposite effects of emotional context: Target words in
negative sentences were best remembered with immediate recognition but worst
after a 24-hour delay. These results support the idea that emotional valence
has different impacts on memory over time.