Affective orientation influences memory for emotional and neutral words.

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  • Author(s): Greenberg SN;Greenberg SN; Tokarev J; Estes Z
  • Source:
    The American journal of psychology [Am J Psychol] 2012 Spring; Vol. 125 (1), pp. 71-80.
  • Publication Type:
    Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Language:
    English
  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: University of Illinois Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0370513 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0002-9556 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00029556 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Am J Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Publication: Urbana Il : University of Illinois Press
      Original Publication: Austin, Tex. [etc.]
    • Subject Terms:
      Affect/*physiology ; Emotions/*physiology ; Mental Recall/*physiology ; Orientation/*physiology; Adolescent ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Vocabulary ; Young Adult
    • Abstract:
      Memory is better for emotional words than for neutral words, but the conditions contributing to emotional memory improvement are not entirely understood. Elsewhere, it has been observed that retrieval of a word is easier when its attributes are congruent with a property assessed during an earlier judgment task. The present study examined whether affective assessment of a word matters to its remembrance. Two experiments were run, one in which only valence assessment was performed, and another in which valence assessment was combined with a running recognition for list words. In both experiments, some participants judged whether each word in a randomized list was negative (negative monitoring), and others judged whether each was positive (positive monitoring). We then tested their explicit memory for the words via both free recall and delayed recognition. Both experiments revealed an affective congruence effect, such that negative words were more likely to be recalled and recognized after negative monitoring, whereas positive words likewise benefited from positive monitoring. Memory for neutral words was better after negative monitoring than positive monitoring.Thus, memory for both emotional and neutral words is contingent on one's affective orientation during encoding.
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20120321 Date Completed: 20120719 Latest Revision: 20191112
    • Publication Date:
      20240829
    • Accession Number:
      10.5406/amerjpsyc.125.1.0071
    • Accession Number:
      22428427