Emotion Can Put the Oomph in Memory Recall
I have been doing a lot of work with how to make memories and the problems with memory recall. As we get older, both sides of this equation can become more difficult. I became fascinated with the supercharge that emotion gives memory. Let’s take a look at what I discovered.
There is a general acceptance that emotion plays a role in our ability to recall stored memories. It makes sense that we remember emotionally charged events better than mundane ones.
Experiences that lead us to have feelings of delight, anger, fear, joy or other emotional states pave the way for more vivid recollections than ordinary everyday events. Emotions play a role in every aspect of memory: remembering (encoding) information, consolidating memories and during the recall of experiences at a later date.
Studies have indicated that the emotional state that we are in when we perceive and process an observation can positively affect the encoding of the information into short-term or long-term memory. Memories seem to be treated differently depending if they are associated with pleasant emotions or unpleasant ones. Pleasant emotions appear to fade more slowly from our memory than unpleasant emotions. Age causes a variation on this process. Older adults seem to be able to regulate their emotions better than younger people and may even encode less information that is negative.
Attention, Emotion and Memory
One of the basic tenets of creating a memory is to focus attention on what you want to remember. Attention and meaning provide strong platforms for memories to be made. As we get older we have a more difficult time holding our attention on what we want to remember. Our distraction filters are gone and it becomes more difficult to focus.
Research suggests that emotional stimuli and attentional functions move in parallel streams through the brain until they integrate in the brain’s prefrontal cortex (anterior cingulate). This is why emotional stimuli are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with your concentration on a task such as driving. (memory-key.com)
As it turns out, our brains are more likely to focus on stimuli of emotional significance. A research study by Schupp et al (2007) found that participants’ attention increased when emotional images were displayed to them. This study suggested that our attention is instinctively drawn to emotional subjects. The study also found that upon switching our attention from one subject to another, there was a brief phenomenon that occurred. This phenomenon is an attentional blink during which we are unable to focus on the next set of stimuli. This means that we remember something not as well if we have been focusing on something else immediately before it.
The Effect of Mood
Mood is an aspect of emotion – and is your emotional state at the time of encoding or retrieving. Your mood affects your attention to events and what will be encoded. This is reflected in two effects:
Mood congruence: we remember events that match our current mood (when we are depressed, we tend to remember negative events), and
Mood dependence: refers to the fact that remembering is easier when your mood at retrieval matches your mood at encoding (your chances of remembering an event are greater if you evoke the emotional state you were in at the time of experiencing the event or learning the fact). (memory-key.com)
This seems to present a conundrum: duplicating the same mood at retrieval that you had at encoding may prove difficult. And, even though emotions trigger memories, this isn’t an automatic event. Your memory will be reflected in your current mood – good or bad; and, the importance of experiencing the same emotional state you had at encoding might be more elusive.
The Role of the Hippocampus and Amygdala
The hippocampus is the center of new learning and memory in the brain. The amygdala is the emotional center. Both the hippocampus and the amygdala play key roles in processing both memories and emotions. The interactions between the two reinforce the link between memory and emotions. The amygdala increases activity when remembering emotional stimuli whether they are positive or negative. Then, the amygdala modulates activity in the hippocampus in the formation of new memories.
Age and Gender Differences
There are differences in the way that men and women process emotional memories. Women are better at accessing emotional memories. They are also more likely to forget information presented to them before receiving emotionally charged information. Women are more affected by emotional content. This is compatible with the finding that women and men tend to encode emotional experiences in different parts of the brain. Sabrina Kuhlmann and her colleagues carried out a study that tested the effect of cortisol (the stress hormone) has a memory recall. After inducing a state of stress and conducting a memory task, Kuhlman found that the release of cortisol had a significant effect on male participants’ memories which did not occur to the same extent in females (Kuhlmann et al, 2001).
There is also an age difference in memory retention. The tendency to let unpleasant memories fade faster than pleasant ones – gets stronger as we age. Older adults are able to regulate their emotions more effectively than younger people by maintaining positive feelings and lowering negative feelings. Research shows that in older adults the amygdala responds is activated equally to positive and negative images, whereas in younger people there is more activation of the amygdala to negative events.
This Is How the Brain Works
The key player in the processing of emotional memory is the amygdala. The cerebellum, most often associated with motor skills, may also be involved in remembering strong emotions, in particular, in the consolidation of long-term memories of fear. Parts of the prefrontal cortex are jointly influenced by a combination of mood state and cognitive task – but not by either one separately. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is more active when participants were surprised by unexpected responses. Involvement in different areas of the brain occur depending on the nature of the emotion experienced. Positive emotional contexts evoked activity in the right fusiform gyrus among other regions), and negative emotional contexts evoked activity in the right amygdala.
If you want to have easier access to your memories – encode and trigger them with emotion.
References:
About Memory/The Role of Emotion in Memory. Retrieved June 18, 2018 from http://www.memory-key.com/memory/emotion
Emotions and Memory. Retrieved June 18, 2018 from http://www.psychologistworld.com/emotion-memory-psychology