Visual attention and emotional memory: Recall of aversive pictures is partially mediated by concurrent task performance.

Abstract

The emotional enhancement of memory is often thought to be determined by attention. However, recent evidence using divided attention paradigms suggests that attention does not play a significant role in the formation of memories for aversive pictures. We report a study that investigated this question using a paradigm in which participants had to encode lists of randomly intermixed negative and neutral pictures under conditions of full attention and divided attention followed by a free recall test. Attention was divided by a highly demanding concurrent task tapping visual processing resources. Results showed that the advantage in recall for aversive pictures was still present in the DA condition. However, mediation analyses also revealed that concurrent task performance significantly mediated the emotional enhancement of memory under divided attention. This finding suggests that visual attentional processes play a significant role in the formation of emotional memories.

The effects of negative emotion on encoding-related neural activity predicting item and source recognition

“…Empirical evidence in favour of the latter comes mainly from eyewitness memory studies in which memory for the details of an emotional scene are impaired if they are distant from the main focus of attention (Christianson and Loftus, 1987;Christianson, 1992;Steblay, 1992). Evidence for the former comes from studies showing that the EEM effect can be observed even when attention resources are depleted at encoding (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004;Kern et al, 2005;Pottage and Schaefer, 2012;Buratto et al, 2014). More recently, hybrid models have been proposed.…”

“…There are two main competing models regarding the role of attention in EEM: the first model suggests that emotion modulates encoding through quick, automatic processes largely independent of attention, whereas the other model suggests that overt attention plays a predominant role in the formation of emotional memories (Christianson, 1992;Kern et al, 2005;Pottage and Schaefer, 2012;Talmi et al, 2013). Empirical evidence in favour of the latter comes mainly from eyewitness memory studies in which memory for the details of an emotional scene are impaired if they are distant from the main focus of attention (Christianson and Loftus, 1987;Christianson, 1992;Steblay, 1992).…”

The role of attention in the associative binding of emotionally arousing words

“…For example, Pottage and Schaefer (2012) asked participants to encode negative and neutral pictures under full and divided attention. When attention was divided during encoding, participants viewed a series of single digits superimposed on each picture and determined whether an even or odd number of digits was presented.…”

“…Furthermore, if memory for negative stimuli benefits in part from automatic processing (e.g., Pottage & Schaefer, 2012), negative EEM may be preserved under divided attention during encoding, but positive EEM may be reduced or eliminated for items and associations. Finally, if retrieval of emotional items is relatively automatic, the tradeoff between memory for emotional items and associations should be observed even under divided attention at retrieval.…”

Emotion and Coping in the Aftermath of Medical Error

“…[46] Despite these limitations, there is consistent, powerful evidence that suggests emotionally charged memories are likely to be recalled more vividly, and this may be applicable to the experience of making a medical error. [47][48][49][50][51] Assessing the validity of the measurement tool in this relatively infant research area was challenging. Whilst pilot work provided face and content validity, we were unable to assess concurrent validity as there is no current validated measure that assesses the impact of making an error on health professionals nor is there agreement regarding the dimensions of the construct of 'second victim' to establish construct validity.…”