This study examined the correlation between a person experiencing a specific emotion at a given time and see if that emotion enhances memory. There were not specific demographics used on this research study but to see only the significance on emotion and the response time given from the stroop test. The emotions we tested on were Happy, Sad, Anger, and Fear. We predicted that the sadness would have a higher response time than with other emotions. Successfully, we saw that sadness had a significantly higher response time in comparison to any other emotion displayed to the participants. With the results gathered, emotions and memory can be indelible.
Emotion Vs. Memory
As people, they experience some event at least once a day whether it may or may not be significant to them in the moment. The brain is functioned to automatically give a certain reaction to an event that people experience; negative or positive. The reaction they give is the emotions: happiness, sadness, anger or fear. There are many claims that signify that emotions are not correlation with memory but in this study we are going to focus on that emotion memory is indelible. Can the emotions that are inhibited enhance memory? Is there a specific type emotion that induces a better memory?
Biologically, the limbic system is in control our emotions and memory functions. Within the limbic system we have the amygdala that has the “key role in supporting memory in emotionally arousing experiences” (Hermans 2014). The necessity in learning emotions and how one reacts to events are behind neurological science. The amygdala filled with complexities depending on the person you have the study on. Emotional memories are often remembered vividly. Is it the emotion itself that helps enhance the detail of the memory? Or just people’s ability to retain memorable events? People’s memory tends to be remembered if it corresponds with a negative emotion. According to Elizabeth Kensinger, a number of studies examining negative emotion’s influence on memory have revealed that individuals remember elements that are centrally tied to the emotional item but forget elements more peripheral to the emotional aspect of the event (2007).
Typically when people go through something traumatic such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients, they tend to remember every detail of their experienced event. Usually with those patients, their trauma has negatively affected their life and in which they live day to day having bad flashbacks. It is the sadness that displayed a major part in the event that makes them remembers the event so vividly. “Traumatic memory plays an important role in certain neuroses and psychoses. While some doctors never trouble their heads about traumatic memories, and are not even aware of the fact that they exist, and while others fancy them everywhere, there is room for people to take a middle course, and to detect the existence of traumatic memories in specific cases”(Kolk 2002). To correlate with this study, we are measuring different emotions aside from sadness and see if other emotions affect memory with enhancement. With the research that we conducted, we expected that the individuals would have a higher score in their incongruent results with the sadness condition.
Method
Participants
Participants did not belong to any demographic; the survey was distributed at a random online. There were a total of 30 participants that were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: Happy, Sad, Anger, and Fear.
Materials
We approached our research question by having the participant be randomly assigned a condition followed by the mandatory stroop test. The Stroop test is an experimental paradigm that influences the study of cognitive control. It examines the response time of the participant to name the incongruent color and word. The response time was measured by using the online stroop test (https://www.psytoolkit.org/lessons/experiment_stroop.html) that consisted of colored words congruent and incongruent. In less than 5 minutes, participants were required to pick the right color that highlighted the word (the word ‘blue’ in the font color green) and the response time is recorded. Scores were calculated by the response time of the incongruent minus the congruent. Typically, a person would have a better congruent response time than with incongruent due to the fact that people automatically choose the color they read rather than the highlighted color.
Procedure
Since the survey was distributed online, it began with the participant giving their informed consent. Participants were informed that this research is being continued and their answers will remain anonymous. The experiment consisted of 4 videos assigned randomly to the participants, which were the different conditions. Instructions were given that after they watched the video, participants have to complete the stroop test and enter their results in the given box. This design was used to control individual differences in response ability in correlation with the emotion they’re experiencing at the moment. Finalizing the survey, the participants were debriefed.
Results
The response time are calculated by ‘ms’, which is in milliseconds. The fear condition was not counted in the results because of the inconsistency; the participants did not get that condition as much as the others. We had to read through the results to indicate that each participant correctly perceived his or her condition and had followed the rules for it. The average response time with the sad condition was 421 ms, which is good because that would mean the incongruent response time was high. We predicted that the participants in the sad condition would perform better on the stroop test than those in the sad, anger, and fear condition. The within subject ANOVA showed a significant effect on the sad condition.
Figure 1.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to test how different emotions can affect one’s memory. We predicted that people who express sadness or witness something sad tend to have low response time in the given task. In this study, those who categorized into the sad condition did have a higher response time than with any other emotion. Therefore, the hypothesis was supported.
Research on emotions and memory could continue in several claims. First, other aspects of cognition may be affected by memory such as any lesions to the brain. With respect to this latter topic, if some participants were to have a significant damage to their limbic system specifically their amygdala, results would differ. In addition, we can look at the time of day when the participants took the survey that may have influenced the results: some were taken late last night opposed to the ones that complete the survey in the morning. People doing a task at a given time tend to have different tolerances for emotion. It is also possible that one can stay in a specific emotion without being affected by environmental reasons. Therefore, research could somehow study the emotional memory whether its negative or positive in a person’s life, that it may or may not be enhanced.
In conclusion, the results of this study provide some insights into the emotional effects on memory. Indifference to what we predicted, a person may be very capable of various outcomes depending on the event that they experience and how that affects the person. Many people can experience different emotions at any given moment then bring up a specific memory. This research and other research to follow will supply to knowledge of both advantages and disadvantages—of emotions on memory. The mixed results of this study can lead up to different claims with emotion and memory.