Positive emotion enhances association-memory.

ABSTRACT: The influence of emotion on association-memory is often attributed to arousal, but negative stimuli are typically used to test for these effects. While prior studies of negative emotion on association-memory have found impairments, theories suggest that positive emotion may have a distinct effect on memory, and may lead to enhanced association-memory. Here we tested participants' memory for pairs of positive and neutral words using cued recall, supplemented with a mathematical modeling approach designed to disentangle item- versus association-memory effects that may otherwise confound cued-recall performance. In our main experiment, as well as in additional supplemental experiments, we consistently found enhanced association-memory due to positive emotion. Interestingly, we observed enhanc

SUBMITTER: Madan CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6612425 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature