Post-encoding emotional arousal enhances consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory

ABSTRACT

The current study examined whether the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory extends to reality-monitoring source memory and, if so, whether the effect depends on emotionality of learning stimuli and testing format. In Experiment 1, participants encoded neutral words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video. The 24-hour delayed test showed that emotional arousal had little effect on both item memory and reality-monitoring source memory. Experiment 2 was similar except that participants encoded neutral, positive, and negative words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. The results showed that positive and negative emotional arousal induced after encoding enhanced consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli. Experiment 3, identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were tested only on source memory for all the encoded items, still showed that post-encoding emotional arousal had little effect on consolidation of reality-monitoring source memory. Taken together, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli and regardless of testing format of source memory (conjunction test vs. independent test), the facilitatory effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory does not generalize to reality-monitoring source memory.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive emotional arousal
• Negative emotional arousal
• Item memory
• Reality source monitoring
• Memory consolidation

Acknowledgement

Thanks go to Peter Philipp for grammar advice on the revised manuscript.

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Funding

This study was supported by a Grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31100736] (国家自然科学基金委资助); a Visiting Scholar Grant from China Scholarship Council (国家留学基金资助); and a Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金资助).