THE EFFECT OF
EMOTION ON MEMORY
What happens to memory under
emotional or distressing conditions?
Can we still assume people’s memories
to be accurate and valid?
THE EFFECT OF
EMOTION ON MEMORY
 Does emotional arousal enhance or
impair memory?
 Everyday memories - flashbulbs and
functional amnesia
 Emotion and the structure of our
memories
 Explanations for the effects of
emotion on memory
Memory
Impairments
 Levinger & Clark (1961)
 Kleinsmith & Kaplan (1963; 1964)
 Kuehn (1974)
 Loftus & Burns (1982)
 Newhagen & Reeves (1992)
Memory
Enhancements
 Howes, Siegal & Brown (1993)
 Conway (1990)
 Pillemar, Rhinehart & White (1986)
 Yuille & Cutshall (1986)
 Christianson & Hubinette (1993)
Impairment
or Enhancement?
Flashbulb memories
(Brown and Kulik, 1977)
Functional amnesia
(Christianson & Nilsson, 1984)
The Yerkes-Dodson
Function (1908)
performance
a b
c d
emotional arousal
Explanations of the
effect of emotion on memory
Yerkes-Dodson Function
(Yerkes and Dodson, 1908)
Cue Utilisation Theory
(Easterbrook, 1959)
SUMMARY
Emotional arousal can facilitate
memory - leading to ‘flashbulbs’
Emotional arousal can impair
memory - leading to ‘functional
amnesia’
The effect of emotion is
unpredictable but may rely on the
degree of arousal or on other
personality-based factors
Information that is temporarily lost
may be retrieved by reinstating the
arousal - leading to state-dependent
retrieval