Lasting Memories: Post-Event Stress and Memory for Emotional Pictures
Courtney Oelkers
University off Wisconsin – Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin
Advisor: Dr. Desiree Budd
Introduction
ƒ Post-event stress has been shown to enhance memoryy for
arousing, unpleasant pictures.
ƒ The present study was designed to investigate the effect of
post event stress on memory for neutral pictures (neither
pleasant nor unpleasant) pictures that varied in the level of
arousal they evoked in the viewer (high vs. low).
Ratings: Subjective SAM Measures
Cold Pressor Post-event Stress:
• After viewing all pictures, participants were assigned to one of two
conditions:
• Cold Pressor Stress: Place hand in Ice water bath for 3 minutes
• Control Condition: Place hand in room temperature water bath for 3 minutes
•High arousal pictures rated as significantly more arousing than low
arousing pictures
•High arousal and low arousal pictures rates similarly for valence.
Recognition Memory Test
Day 2: Recognition Memory Test
What We Did
• 48 hours later given recognition memory test:
“Old”
Old Response Required
1
Day 1: Encoding and Measures of Arousal
Proportion Correct
“Old” picture vs. similar “New” picture.
• Participants viewed pictures from the IAPS which provoked
different arousal responses (High vs. Low Arousal),
0.9
0.8
0.7
Ice water bath
0.6
Room temp water bath
0.5
Low
High
Picture Arousal
15 High Arousing
Old Pictures
15 Low Arousal Pictures
Measures of Arousal
• Physiological response to each picture using
Electrodermal Activity
• Subjective arousal and valence ratings of each
picture using SAM
SAM Arousal
15 Low Arousing
Old Pictures
15 Low Arousing
New Pictures
NORMALIZE
ED EDA
(delta m
mho)
9
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
9
0.8
0.7
Ice water bath
0.6
Room temp water bath
Picture Arousal
High
Conclusions
• Post-event arousal did not enhance memory for highly arousing
pictures.
• Post-event stress enhanced memory for low arousing pictures by
allowing people to correctly reject similar new pictures.
GROUP AVERAGE (N=14)
-2000
1
0.9
Low
Did the high arousal pictures cause high arousal?
SAM Valence
“New” Response Required
0.5
• GSR: Physiological Measure
1
1
Proportio
on correct
15 High Arousal Pictures
15 Low Arousing
New Pictures
This research was partially funded by the National
Science Foundation (#DUE-053651)
Low Arousal Pics
High Arousal Pics
-1000
0
1000
2000
TIME (msec)
3000
4000
CONTACT INFO:
email: Courtney Oelkers
oelkersc@uwstout.edu