Starter

Try to describe your earliest memory to a
friend (unless it’s really painful) and then
suggest reasons why you remember this
event so well.
The role of emotion in
memory
Emotion
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Emotion can affect memory in one of two
ways

Enhanced memory
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Flashbulb memories
Impaired memory
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Repression
Mood dependant memory and depressive state
1 – ENHANCED MEMORY –
FLASHBULB MEMORIES

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Vivid, long-lasting memories surrounding a
person’s discovery of shocking events.
It seems as if the mind has "taken a
picture" of the circumstances in which the
news was learned.

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9/11 attacks
Princess Diana’s death.
Different from normal memories

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Last a lifetime
Do not decay or change
Do you have a flashbulb memory?

Q. What were you doing when you heard the
news about the following?



The attack on the World Trade Centre
Michael Jackson’s death
A personal event
Draw Three Columns

For
Against
Evaluation

In the appropriate column write the name/s of
the researchers and one word to jog your
memory of their theory/study
What causes flashbulb
memories?

Cahill & McGaugh (1998)



Flashbulb memories occur because
of the release of hormones during
times of high emotion.
Hormones make memories more
vivid, enhancing recall.
Adaptive behaviour - promote
survival

Vivid recall of an emotional event may
help the animal or human cope with
any similar situation in the future.
What causes flashbulb
memories?

Cahill & McGaugh (1995)

Injecting rats with adrenaline leads to better recall
on a learning task.
What causes flashbulb
memories?

Neisser (1982)


Flashbulb memories are much more memorable
because they are repeated so often.
Exposure to news, discussion of important events
and their implications creates more opportunities
for rehearsal to happen
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Hard to test accuracy of memories


Loftus



Evidence is retrospective
Post event information e.g. leading questions
Memory can be altered easily by information
received after the event.
Are flashbulb memories the same, or are they
immune to this alteration?
7/7 Bombings evidence of
false memories
Experiment into false memory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfhIuaD18
3I

Have a pen and paper ready !!
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Wright (1993)

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Interviewed people about Hillsborough disaster
After five months, memories were vague, and
subject to systematic biases.
Memories were a blend of their own real
experiences, and information that had come after
the event.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Wright (1993)


Suggests flashbulb memories are not a special
type of memory.
He argues that there is no difference between
these memories and other memories, as they
both can alter after time, and be reconstructed
with post event information.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

McCloskey et al (1988)



Interviewed people shortly after the Challenger
disaster, and again after 9 months.
Many of the participants forgot elements of the
event, and there were errors in their recall.
This also suggests that flashbulb memories
are no different from normal memories.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Conway et al (1994)


Challenger explosion did not have personal
significance to the participants.
Tested people’s memories immediately after the
resignation of Margaret Thatcher, and again after
11 months.


In the UK, 86% still had flashbulb memories
This was 29% for other countries.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Conway et al (1994)


Suggests flashbulb memories exists, and are
different than normal memories.
However, they may only exist for events with
personal significance.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Sheingold and Terry (1982)


Participants had very good memories for highly
personal events which remained consistent over
time.
Suggests that flashbulb memories have to have
emotional importance for the person.
How accurate are Flashbulb
memories?

Sheingold and Terry (1982)


This provides evidence for flashbulb memories as
they should be memories which are consistent
and unchanging.
However, there is no way to tell how accurate
they were to begin.
Evaluation of research

Strengths:


Naturalistic. Reactions and memories formed from
real life events.
Therefore high ecological validity.
Evaluation of research

Weaknesses


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Research can lack reliability
Can not really be replicated
A lot of the research is retrospective, we can not
reliably measure how accurate people’s initial
memories are.
Test your memory !


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What is a flashbulb memory?
Who theorised that FBs were an adaptive
response and different to ordinary memories?
Who disagreed with them?
What may have caused memories of 9/11 to
be altered after the event?
What did Conway et al suggest events had to
have for them to become flashbulb
memories?
2- IMPAIRED MEMORY REPRESSION
Discussion

Q. What can you remember about repression
from your AS studies? (Think Freud)

Q. What sort of memories do you think may be
repressed?
The Unconscious
The conscious. The small
amount of mental activity we
know about.
Thoughts
Perceptions
The preconscious. Things
we could be aware of if we
wanted or tried.
The unconscious. Things
we are unaware of and can
not become aware of.
Memories
Stored knowledge
Bad
Worse
Really Bad
Fears
Unacceptable sexual desires
Violent motives
Irrational wishes
Immoral urges
Selfish needs
Shameful experiences
Traumatic experiences
What is repression

Repression


Memories that have been locked out of
our conscious awareness.
Freud argued that the unconscious
stops traumatic memories from
getting into to the conscious mind.


Protects the individual from experiencing
guilt, embarrassment, humiliation or
worry. An ego defence mechanism.
Repressed memories can cause
problems in consciousness
What is repression

Freud’s evidence


Little Hans and Anna O
Repression is difficult to test.


Unable to access repressed thoughts
Is it there? Or just inaccessible?
Evidence for repression

Williams (1994)

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206 women who had suffered a sexual assault as girls
20 years after the assault, the women were asked about
being treated at a hospital when younger.
38% had no recollection of the abuse,
Of those who did, 16% reported that they had not been
able to remember at one point, but now could.
This research suggests that traumatic childhood
memories can be repressed, and also recovered.
Evidence for repression


Williams (1994)
Evaluation:



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Ecological validity
Deception and ethical issues
Can we be certain that the
participants told the truth?
Can we be certain that the
interviewers were unbiased?
Evidence for repression

Karon & Widener (1997)



Studied hundreds of cases of WWII
veterans who had repressed memories
of traumatic events during war.
When memories were recalled in
therapy, psychological issues
disappeared.
This provides support for Freud’s
theory that traumatic memories
repressed in the unconscious can
have a negative effect on our
conscious lives.
Evidence for repression


Karon & Widener (1997)
Evaluation



Issues with generalising from case studies
Specific type of trauma. Can we generalise?
Does it have high ecological validity?
Evidence for repression

Loftus and Burns (1982)



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Participants were shown a film
of a bank robbery.
One groups saw a violent
version where a boy was shot
in the face.
This group had poorer recall
than the neutral video.
Suggests heightened
emotion impairs memory
Evidence for repression

Loftus and Burns (1982)

Evaluation:

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Ecological validity?
Ethical issues?
Weapon effect?
Evidence for repression

Levinger and Clark (1961)

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Participants had to remember negative words (quarrel,
angry, fear) or neutral words (window, cow, tree).
Emotional words took more time to recall.
Suggests that the emotional content of the words
impaired memory.
Research into Repression


Conduct a small experiment on 1-3
participants as described on your sheets.
As an extension task to consolidate
research methods knowledge you can
answer the questions on the back at home.
Evidence for repression


Levinger and Clark (1961)
Evaluation


Ecological validity?
Can we be sure that it was actually repression
that was taking place?
Evaluation - Why is repression
controversial ?



Repression is difficult to test empirically and
there is little scientific evidence to support it.
Many cases of recovered memories of child
abuse occurred after therapy causing
controversy. How do we know that the
therapist didn’t implant the memory?
(Compare to Loftus and shopping mall)
Many people do not forget traumatic events –
how can this be explained?
Plenary


What does repression suggest about the
effect of emotion of the memory?
How does this compare to the existence of
flashbulb memories?
Answer these questions


How do you feel today?
Describe something that happened to you
yesterday.
3- IMPAIRED MEMORY –
MOOD DEPENDENT MEMORY

Discussion

Q. What is depression? How do you think it
could affect memory?
How can depression affect
memory?

Antikainen et al (2001)



174 adults with major depression who
had impairments in their memory.
After 6 months of treatment for
depression, it was found that a
reduction in the symptoms of
depression led to an improvement in
memory.
This suggests that there is a
relationship between depression
and memory.
How can depression affect
memory? 3 explanations
Lyketsos (2001)



Depression causes low motivation and
reduced awareness.
May lead to inattentiveness. Memories are never
encoded in the first place.
How can depression affect
memory? 3 explanations
Sheline et al (1999)




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Biological basis for poor
memory
Women who were depressed
had a reduced hippocampus
Suggested this is due to high
levels of the hormone cortisol
causing shrinkage
Evaluation: Correlation vs.
causation?
Mood Dependent memory

People can remember better
when in the same state of
mind, be that mentally,
emotionally or drug induced as
when the memory was
encoded

Negative recall bias

Depressed people are more
likely to be able to recall
unhappy or negative memories
than positive or happy memories
Mood Dependent memory

Eich et al (1994)



Participants were asked to read a list of 16 words.
For each word they had to describe either a sad
or happy memory associated with it.
After 2 days the participants were asked to
imagine being sad or happy and recall
Those in a sad mood were able to remember
more sad memories than happy memories (and
visa versa).
Mood Dependent memory



Eich et al (1994)
Suggests that the emotional state at the time
of both encoding and recall can have an
effect on memory.
Evaluation



Ethical issues
Ecological validity
Demand characteristics
Peer assess evaluations





Swap notes with another person and assess
their evaluations of the evidence.
Have they…..
Fully and clearly explained what the issue is?
Explained it in broad terms or in the context
of the study being evaluated ?
Put a star next to any evaluations you feel
are not clear so that the person can have
another go at home.
Quiz

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1. Researcher beginning with N who thought FB memories were
long lasting because of rehearsal.
2. The percentage of UK people tested who recalled Margaret
Thatcher’s resignation.
3. Who said events should have personal significance for them to
become FB memories?
4. The only way that repressed memories can be recovered
according to Freud.
5. According to Williams’ research 38% of women interviewed had
no what ?
6. A reason why recovered memories cause controversy
7. According to Eich’s research what will affect both encoding and
recall?
Exam style question

Describe and evaluate the role of emotion in memory
(25)
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You should have 300 words of description (AO1)
You should have 500 words of evaluation (AO2)
Depth and range with a clear structure
Research should be named and the year given.
Need to state how the research supports/contradicts
the theory.
Note any possible issues with the research such as
reliability, validity or ethics.
Essay Plan for Emotion and
Memory.



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Intro – Studies have shown various ways in which
emotion effects how information is encoded and
retrieved.
Par1 – Flashbulb memories – description and research
evidence for and against – evaluation of evidence.
Par2 – Repression – description and research evidence
– evaluation of psychodynamic theory and ethics of
research/therapy
Par3 – Mood congruence and Depressive state –
description, evidence, evaluation
Conclusion – Summarise and say on balance whether
evidence suggests that emotion effects memory.
Answers
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1.Neisser
2. 86%
3. Conway et al
4. Through therapy
5. Recollection of their abuse
6. Memories can be implanted as well as
recovered
7. Your mood at the time