How Emotions Shape Our Memories

University:
California State University, Northridge
Course:
PSY 150 | Introduction to Psychology
Academic year:

2023
Views:

218

Pages:

2
Author:

JJIssac

HOW EMOTIONS SHAPE OUR MEMORIES memory during reasoning and learning.  It consists of a central executive control system along with two short-term storage systems - the phonological loop for verbal content and the visuospatial sketchpad for visual/spatial representations.  An episodic buffer component integrates information across systems and with long-term memory.  Factors like word length, semantic similarity, and individual differences affect working memory capacity. Emotion and mood can profoundly influence how we encode, store, and retrieve memories. This complex relationship sheds light on the interplay between cognition and affect. Emotion Enhances Memory    The Pollyanna Principle - We tend to better remember pleasant compared to unpleasant stimuli. Positivity enhances encoding and retrieval. Neutral items associated with positive stimuli are also better recalled, while anger and violence can impair memory.  We recall material more accurately when it matches our current mood state, a phenomenon called mood congrence. Depressed individuals exhibit a mood congruence effect for negative material while nondepressed people show superior recall of positive information. Working Memory Model   Information processing occurs through interactions across networks of simple neuron-like units rather than discrete serial stages.  Activation through networks.  Knowledge is distributed across links rather than stored in specific locations. Over time, negative memories tend to fade faster than positive ones. The positivity effect emerges. Mood Congruence  Parallel Distributed Processing Working memory involves storing and manipulating information in short-term flows in parallel interconnected Serial Position Curve  Superior memory for early list items reflects the primacy effect. Rehearsal transfers these to long-term storage.  Superior memory for recent items reflects the recency effect since they remain in short-term memory.  Middle items suffer from reduced rehearsal and displacement from short-term storage. In summary, emotion, cognitive load, and serial order all crucially shape how we encode, retain, and retrieve memories. This highlights the complex, dynamic nature of memory.