The beneficial effect of contextual emotion on memory: the role of integration

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effects of emotion on the integration mechanism which binds together the components of an event and the relations between these components and encodes them within a memory trace [Versace, R., Vallet, G. T., Riou, B., Lesourd, M., Labeye, É, & Brunel, L. (2014). Act-In: An integrated view of memory mechanisms. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(3), 280–306. doi:10.1080/20445911.2014.892113]. Based on the literature, the authors argue that, in a memory task, contextual emotion could strengthen the integration mechanism and, more specifically, the relations between a target item and its contextual features. To test this hypothesis, the authors used two odorants (neutral and negative) to compare the effects of a negative context with those of a neutral one on three different types of recall: item recall (memory for pictures objects), source recall (spatial position of the pictures in a matrix) and recall of the association between an item and its location. The results showed that, in the negative odour context, association recall and source recall – but not item recall – were better than in the neutral odour context thus confirming the effect of emotion on integration. The results lead to the hypothesis that the effects of emotion on memory are linked to the way emotion is introduced into the experimental settings: via the items to be memorised or via the context.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion
• memory
• integration
• act-in

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Lise-Yell Zoulef-Gueucier and Sabria Amara for their help collecting the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sava and Chainay (2016). In this study, 30 participants (24 women and 6 men) from 18 to 30 years old (M = 22.47: SD = 3.03) were asked to denominate 987 pictures, to rate them in terms of arousal and valence, and to classify them in natural or manufactured objects.

2. The pre-test phase was conducted by Adrien Sauli, student at the University of Lyon 2.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the LABEX CORTEX [grant number ANR-11-LABX-0042] of Université de Lyon, within the program “Investissements d’Avenir” [grant number ANR-11-IDEX-0007], operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR). Anthony Macri was supported by a graduate research allocation from the Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche.