The Role of Emotion in Memory (pg 104-105)
Emotion can affect memory in one of two ways
• Enhanced memory
– Flashbulb memories
• Impaired memory
– Repression
– Mood dependant memory and depressive state
ENHANCED MEMORY – FLASHBULB MEMORIES
Discussion
Q. What effect do you think emotion has on memory? Can heightened emotion improve memory, or make it
worse?
Q. What would be the advantage of enhanced memory during heightened emotion?
Brown and Kulik (1977) first coined the term “Flashbulb Memory” to describe vivid, long-lasting memories
surrounding a person’s discovery of shocking events. They noticed that people were able to describe exactly
what they were doing when they heard of JFK’s assassination. People remember clearly details of where they
were, what they were doing and who they were with when they first heard the news. Flashbulb
memories were so named because it seems as if the mind has "taken a picture" of the
circumstances in which the news was learned. Famous examples of common
flashbulb memories include the assassination of JFK and Princess Diana’s
death. Flashbulb memories are different from normal memories as they seem to
last a lifetime, they are highly detailed, and supposedly immune to decay.
Q. What were you doing when you heard the news about the following?
a) The attack on the World Trade Centre
b) Michael Jackson’s death
c) Any other important event
Note that flashbulb memories do not just occur around important national and international events. They can
also occur for significant personal events, such as unexpected bereavement, or for surprising good news.
What causes flashbulb memories?
Cahill & McGaugh (1998) proposed that the reason flashbulb memories occur is because of
the release of hormones during times of high emotion. This arousal helps the animal or
human to respond to a situation (survival behaviour). However, these hormones also have an
effect on memory by making memories more vivid, and enhancing recall. This would be an
adaptive behaviour as the vivid recall of an emotional event may help the animal or human
cope with any similar situation in the future. This is supported by their research (Cahill &
McGaugh (1995)) which has shown that injecting rats with adrenaline leads to better recall on
a learning task.
However, an alternative theory is that the reason flashbulb memories are so vivid, is that
people repeat them so often. “What were you doing when you heard the news?” Neisser (1982) argued that
flashbulb memories are much more memorable because of the rehearsal and disclosure that happens after the
event. As well as being exposed to news, people tend to discuss important events and their implications in daily
life. This is likely to create considerably more opportunities for rehearsal to happen.
How accurate are Flashbulb memories?
An issue with the idea of flashbulb memories is that it is hard to establish how accurate these memories are.
Much of the research is retrospective. People report these strong memories, but there is no real way of testing
to see how much the memory reflects the real event. Although flashbulb memories contain lots of detail, the
details in people's memories are not an indication of their correctness; we can be confident about some things
but we can still make mistakes.
Loftus investigated the effect of post event information on the accuracy of memories in many experiments
(such as those into leading questions). She discovered time after time that memory can be altered easily by
information received after the event. The question is; are flashbulb memories the same, or are they immune to
this alteration?
Wright (1993) aimed to investigate how accurate people’s flashbulb
memories actually were. He interviewed people about their recall of the
Hillsborough disaster in 1989, a shocking event that was assumed to
produce some flashbulb memories. He found that after five months, most
people’s memories were quite vague, and subject to systematic biases.
Wright suggested that the memories that these people did have were a
blend of their own real experiences, and information that had come after
the event.
This research suggests that flashbulb memories are not a special type of memory which is immune to error.
Rather, 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.
McCloskey et al (1988) conducted a similar study. They interviewed people shortly
after the space shuttle challenger exploded and killed all seven crew members.
People were asked about their recall of the event shortly after it happened, and then
again after 9 months. It was found that 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.
Conway et al (1994) argued that the challenger explosion was not a good example to use as it
did not have personal significance to the participants. He investigated the flashbulb memories
of the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, which Conway claimed would have personal
significance to the people of the UK. They likewise tested people’s memories immediately after
the event and then again after 11 months. They found 86% still had flashbulb memories in the
UK. This was only 29% for other countries. This provides evidence that flashbulb memories
exists, and are different than normal memories. However, they may only exist for events with
personal significance.
Similar evidence by Sheingold and Terry (1982) found that participants had very good memories for highly
personal events such as the birth of a brother or sister. These accounts remained consistent over time.
Therefore, it may be that flashbulb memories have to have emotional importance for the person, something
which the Hillsborough or Challenger disasters may have lacked. This provides evidence for flashbulb memories
as they should be memories which are consistent and unchanging. However, although the memories were
consistent over time, there is no way to tell how accurate they were to begin.
Evaluation of research
Strengths: The majority of research into flashbulb memories is naturalistic. It all involves people’s
reactions and memories formed from real life events. Therefore it is high in ecological validity.
Weaknesses: However, the studies can lack reliability as they can not really be replicated. Therefore, we
can not test to see how consistent the results are. Also, much of the research is retrospective, and there is
the issue that we can not reliably measure how accurate people’s initial memories are.
AO1
 What are flashbulb memories?
o Brown and Kulik (1977)
 How are they different from normal memories?
 What causes flashbulb memories?
o Cahill & McGaugh (1998) vs. Neisser (1982)
AO2
 Evidence that supports the idea of flashbulb
memories being a special type of memory
o Conway et al (1994)
o Sheingold and Terry (1982)
 Evidence against
o Wright (1993)
o McCloskey et al (1988)
 Evaluation of research
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?
Repression is used to describe a certain type of memory, usually of a traumatic type, when
information cannot be retrieved. The term 'repression' is used to describe memories that have
been locked out of our conscious awareness. Freud believed that if individuals go through
incidents or periods of time which are stressful, the unconscious stops these memories from
getting back into to the conscious, to stop the individual from experiencing more worry or
anxiety. Memories which are likely to cause guilt, embarrassment, humiliation or worry are
stopped from reaching the conscious mind. This is a type of ego defence mechanism.
Freud used his patients as evidence for his theory. Particularly Little Hans who he argued
had repressed his Oedipus complex, and Anna O who suffered from various neuroses which Freud argued
stemmed from repressed trauma. Once the repressed thoughts and feelings had been uncovered, the
problems went away. Freud argued that repressed memories can cause problems in consciousness such as
stress and anxiety, and even physical problems that have a psychological cause (psychosomatic).
A major issue with Freud’s theory of repression is that it is difficult to test. If a memory has been repressed,
we obviously can not access it. However, if we can not find a memory, does that mean it has been repressed, or
it just isn’t there? Some modern research has investigated repression in a more scientific way.
Evidence for repression
Williams (1994) used real life examples of traumatic memories to investigate repression. He used hospital
records to identify 206 women who had suffered a sexual assault as girls; a type of incident that we imagine
would be prone to repression. 20 years after the assault, the women were asked about being treated at a
hospital when younger. 38% had no recollection of the abuse, and 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.
Evaluation: As a natural experiment, would it have had high ecological validity? it is important to note
that the women in this study were deceived about its aims as they were told it was an investigation into
the health of people who had been treated at the hospital. Given the nature of the incidents, what ethical
issues does it raise? Also, as this was an interview, can we be certain that the participants told the truth?
Can we be certain that the interviewers were unbiased?
Karon & Widener (1997) investigated the effects of trauma during war and memory
repression. They studied hundreds of cases of WWII veterans who had repressed
memories of traumatic events during war. They discovered that when the memories
were recalled in therapy, the psychological issues that the veterans had been
struggling with for years disappeared. This provides support for Freud’s theory that
traumatic memories repressed in the unconscious can have a negative effect on our
conscious lives.
Evaluation: As these were individual case studies, can we legitimately generalise to other people? The
nature of the repressed memories was very specific. Can it apply to other types of trauma?
Does it have high ecological validity?
Loftus and Burns (1982) tried to recreate the effect of repression in a laboratory situation. They
showed participants one of two films of bank robberies. One of the groups was exposed to a more
violent version where a little boy was shot in his face. The group which saw this version were less
effective in retrieving the details compared to the control group. This suggests that the heightened
emotion that they would have felt while watching this video impaired their memory.
Evaluation: As a lab study does it have ecological validity? Are there any ethical issues?
In another lab experiment by Levinger and Clark (1961), participants had to remember words which were either
negative (quarrel, angry, fear) or neutral (window, cow, tree). When the participants had to practice free recall
immediately after hearing the words, the emotional words took more time. This suggests that the emotional
content of the words made them harder to retrieve, providing some support to
the notion of emotion impairing memory.
Evaluation: As a lab study does it have ecological validity? Can we be
sure that it was actually repression that was taking place?
An issue with repression
A major issue with the idea of recovering repressed memories is that often there is no
way to ascertain whether the recovered memory is a genuine repressed memory, or
whether it is a false memory. Some psychologists have argued that a therapist may
unwittingly plant ideas or give suggestions which lead to the recall of events that never
happened. Loftus and Pickrell (1995) showed that this was possible by interviewing
participants about events in childhood, and planting a false memory of being lost in a
mall (an event which never happened). 20% of the participants came to believe that this
event actually happened, and spontaneously invented details about the event, such as
how they were feeling, what they did etc. Even after being debriefed, some participants
still believed in the false memory!
Evaluation: Are there any issues with using an interview? Are there any ethical issues? Can we be certain
that the memory was false? If it is false, can we be certain that Loftus and Pickrell planted it?
AO1
 What do we mean by repression?
 What does Freud suggest about what causes
repression?
 What effects would repression have?
AO2
 Evidence that supports the theory of repression
o Williams (1994)
o Karon & Widener (1997)
o Loftus and Burns (1982)
o Levinger and Clark (1961)
 Issues with recovery of repressed memories
o Loftus and Pickrell (1995)
 Evaluation of the research
IMPAIRED MEMORY – MOOD DEPENDENT MEMORY AND DEPRESSIVE STATES
Discussion
Q. What is depression? How do you think it could affect memory?
How can depression affect memory?
Studies have shown that people who suffer from depression often have impaired memory.
Antikainen et al (2001) tested 174 adults who suffered with major depression who had impairments in their
memory. After six 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.
This could be due to three reasons
A. Depression leads to low motivation and reduced awareness. This may lead people to be inattentive
meaning that memories are never encoded in the first place. This was an explanation proposed by
Lyketsos (2001).
B. There may be a biological basis for poor memory in depressed people. Sheline et al (1999) found that
women who were depressed had a reduced hippocampus (a part of the brain important in encoding
memories). He proposed that this was due to high levels of the hormone cortisol causing shrinkage of
the hippocampus. Evaluation: Did the depression cause the shrinkage of the hippocampus, or did
the shrinkage cause the depression? Correlation vs. causation?
C. Depressed people tend to have a negative recall bias, meaning that they are more likely to be able to
recall unhappy or negative memories than positive or happy memories (see mood dependent memory
below)
Mood Dependent memory
Research has shown that state of the mind is an extra aid to remembering. It has
been suggested that an individual can remember better when he is in the same state
of mind, be that mentally, emotionally or drug induced. For example, memories
encoded when you are happy are easier to recall when you feel happy. The flipside of
this is that it is harder to remember things when you are in a different mood. For
example, you will find it harder to remember happy memories when you are
depressed. Therefore, it may be that poor memory in depressed people is due to the
memory being mood dependant. That is, if you are feeling low, you are much more
likely to remember depressing events or depressing thoughts from the past, and will
find it harder to remember positive memories.
Eich et al (1994) tested this effect of mood on recall in a laboratory setting. Participants were asked to read a
list of 16 words, and for each word they had to describe either a sad or happy memory associated with that
word. After two days the participants were invited back, and asked to imagine
being in either a sad or happy mood, and then to recall what memories they
had spoken about. Those that were in a sad mood when asked to recall were
able to remember many more sad memories than happy memories. The
opposite was true for people asked to recall when happy. This suggests that
the emotional state at the time of both encoding and recall can have an
effect on memory.
Evaluation: Lab study: how valid? Any ethical issues in this study?
AO1
 What is depression and what effect does it have on
memory?
o Antikainen et al (2001)
 What explanations are there for this link?
o Reduced motivation and awareness
o Biological basis
o Mood dependant memory
AO2
 Evidence that supports the effect of mood
dependant recall
o Eich et al (1994)
 Evaluation of the research
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)
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You can have depth, range, or a combination of the two.
Decide on a clear structure for your essay beforehand. Remember that when citing research in your
answer, you should make it clear how the research relates to the point you are making, and how it
supports or contradicts the theory.
Note any possible issues with the research such as reliability, validity or ethics.
Research should be named and the year given.