State-dependent memory (continued)

In the last blog I outlined the idea of  emotional state-dependent memory and how our mood can affect how efficiently we recall information. I also discussed 'Motivate-forgetting theory' (Freud 1901) which states that memories can be made inaccessible to us by unconscious processes if they are surrounded by negative feelings. While it could be argued that this idea focuses more on the forgetting of highly stressful events than on everyday (but still negative) occurrences, Levinger and Clark (1961) decided to assess how this theory applied to remembering simple words.

They began with reading out a list of simple words and asking the participants to respond to each word with what exactly came into their minds. After it was read out, the list was repeated and the participants were asked to recall their original responses to each word. The list included words of both negative meaning (like 'fear,' 'quarrel,' 'angry') and more neutral words (like 'window,' 'cow,' and 'tree').

The emotionally charged words clearly had an effect as on average it took longer for participants to respond to negative words than to neutral ones (not to mention that the negative words caused higher galvanic skin responses, implying emotional stimulation). But since the study aimed to see the effects of emotion on memory, what's more interesting is that the participants had greater difficulty in remembering their associations to the negatively charged words than with the others, almost as if their negativity made them more difficult to remember.

According to Freud, the reason for this is that an 'unconscious' part of our mind purposefully makes memories with less positive content more difficult to recall. however, a later study by Eysenck & Wilson (1973) showed that if there is a delay of about 1 week between the associations being made and then being recalled, then people actually found it easier to recall the emotionally charged words. If it was really a case of repression, then the material would have remained inaccessible to the participants.

In spite of the conflicting indications of the studies, they both do show emotion, or simply emotional association, to have a effect on memory. And according to the overall theory of state-dependent memory, feeling a particular emotion can make it easier for us to recall similarly emotional material. So emotions can be seen as both a help and a hindrance when it comes to remembering things.