Running Head: EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL 1

Effect of Emotion on Memory for Semantic Details

Megan Gallaher
Spring 2014, Fort Lewis College

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

2

Introduction
In the field of psychology, there are many studies being conducted every day. Some
consist of surveys that are designed to gain a greater perspective of the overall general
population. There are those that are mainly experimental. These largely consist of a control group
which is not manipulated in any sense as well as an experimental group in which one or more
variables become manipulated in order to test hypotheses. Other commonly used forms for
studies are observational which involves studying the subject without changing their
environment. With each study comes new findings and discoveries and some of those discoveries
can include different types of emotions. Every day we experience episodes of excitement, anger,
sadness, etc, and some of these experiences become part of our memories. Many scientists and
psychologists hypothesize that emotions contribute a great deal as to why we keep the memory
of some of these episodes while we dont remember others. Because emotions are known to
influence our memories, one question that arose was: if emotions can increase the likelihood of
remembrance, can they also increase the amount of detail involved in a memory?
One study conducted by Ulrike Rimmele, Lila Davachi, and Elizabeth A. Phelps (2012)
examined the relationship between remembering negative events and recollection of details of
the events. The participants were made up of thirty-two subjects who were instructed to watch
three blocks of film, each containing twenty scenes (ten negative and ten neutral) and say
whether they recalled the scenes or not. The results showed that emotion did enhance overall
recollection and that participants were more likely to experience a stronger subjective sense of
remembering for the negative scenes rather than the neutral scenes.
Another study conducted by Glen E. Bodner and Denise D.L. Richardson-Champion
(2007) examined how recognition details for a set of event details are influenced by the relative
difficulty of other details included on a test. Participants in this study were instructed to view a

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

3

crime event and then were assigned to remember the details on a recognition test. The results
from this study showed that recognition judgments made about details from a witnessed event
can be influenced by the difficulty of other similar details that can replace the original
information collected during the event.
A third study conducted by Ulrike Rimmele, Lila Davachi, Radoslav Petrov, Sonya
Dougal, and Elizabeth A. Phelps (2011) examined whether recollection for negative stimuli is
connected to enhanced memory accuracy for contextual details. The participants consisted of
twenty-five subjects. During the study the participants were shown sixty scenes (thirty neutral
and thirty negative) and these scenes had been chosen beforehand based on the amount of
emotional arousal they each produced. Each scene also had a colored frame around it. The results
showed that participants took significantly longer in judging whether the color of the frame
appeared in negative scenes rather than in neutral scenes.
A fourth study conducted by Tali Sharot, Mauricio R Delgado, and Elizabeth A Phelps
(2004) examined and measured brain activity associated with the feeling of remembering
emotional and neutral photos using photos and an fMRI scanner. Subjects were first presented
with emotional and neutral images outside the scanner. An hour later they viewed these photos in
the fMRI scanner and made remember/know recognition judgments. The results show that a
heightened feeling of remembering is associated with enhanced activity in the amygdala for
emotional material, but with enhanced activity in the par hippocampal cortex which is known for
contributing a great deal towards memory encoding and retrieval for neutral material.
The fifth study that was researched by Katherine Schmidt, Pooja Patnaik, and Elizabeth
A. Kensinger (2011) examined whether an items level of attractiveness (positive, negative) and
how much a person reacts to an event (high, low) would influence its ability to be remembered

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

4

with those contextual details. In this study the participants were twenty-four subjects. These
subjects were given one of two lists of images. Both lists consisted of two-hundred and seventy
images each and each image was shown briefly to a portion of the participants. After seeing one
set of the images, the participants were then shown all five-hundred and forty images together
and were asked by the researchers which ones were part of the old set and the new set
(Schmidt, Patnaik & Kensinger, 2011). The results showed that positive high-arousal items were
recognized more accurately than negative high-arousal items, whereas negative low-arousal
items were recognized more accurately than positive low arousal ones.
In the area of memory and cognition, the studies conducted are designed to test and push
the sections of memory in hopes that new discoveries will become unlocked. Memory studies
have looked at the length of each part of memory, the correlations between memory and
recollection, and some of the variables that can affect memory. The study that I am proposing to
conduct will focus on the remembrance of details and whether emotions play a part in better
recollection in semantic details.
Method
Participants
The participants for this study would be college undergraduates between the ages of
eighteen and twenty-one years of age. Participants would be recruited by sending out a text
message and email inviting them to volunteer for a study on memory. The students that volunteer
would first be screened for symptoms of depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI;
Beck, Epstein, Brown & Steer, 1988) as well as any potential psychological disorders and
whether they are taking any psychoactive medications. Students found to have any psychological
disorder including depression or taking any psychoactive medications will be excluded. They

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

5

would give written consent to give us permission to use them in this study. We will tell them that
they will be compensated for participating in this study. Once the participants are selected, we
would have them complete a form to collect basic demographic information including their
race/ethnicity, age, gender, and major.
Materials and Procedure
The materials that would be used in this study would two videos depicting two different
scenarios. One video will be neutral and the other would be emotional. All participants will view
both videos. Participants will be randomly assigned to view either the neutral or emotional video
first. Study participants will watch the video scenarios individually in separate rooms.
After viewing the videos, participants will complete a questionnaire rating their emotion
in response to each video on a scale of one to five. One would be the least emotional whereas
five would consist of a high array of emotions. This questionnaire would also assess the level of
arousal. Once these are completed, the participants would be told to come back in five days.
Video One: Bill and Jane are a young couple in their early twenties. Bill is a carpenter
and Jane is an interior decorator. They have been dating for two years and moved in together
recently to a one bedroom apartment. Bill and Jane have an orange cat named Tabby. They
have occasional disagreements but they find a way to clear the air after each one. One day Bill
comes home from work in a bad mood. When Jane asks him what is bothering him, he tells her
that his new boss is very hard to get along with. Bill says that his new boss is very particular
about how each of the employees handles their jobs. In addition to this, his new boss comes into
the carpentry shop at the oddest moments and begins complaining about the work being done in
the room. Jane tells him that it may take some time to find a way to work with the new boss. She
also tells him that he should give his new boss a chance before making a rash decision about his

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

6

employment. Finally she tells him that things might start looking better in a few weeks if he
begins looking at his new boss with a new point of view and tries to be cooperative with him. Bill
agrees with Jane and they order pizza for dinner.
The second video has greater emotional content.
Video Two: Jake and Amy are a couple in their mid-twenties. Jake is a police officer who
has been working for the police department for two years. Amy is a graduate student who
working towards a Masters Degree in Chemistry and is only three semesters or a year and a
half away from completing her degree. Jake and Amy have been together since Amys senior year
of college and have spent nearly all of their time together to the point that they are considered
inseparable. They have been dating for two and a half years and have decided to move into a
small apartment downtown together. After a few weeks of searching for a place to live, they find
a small apartment that is only a few blocks from the central part of town. They put a deposit
down for the apartment and a day later, their realtor lets them know that they can now move into
the space together. The couple is excited and are eager to begin a life together. They quickly
move in and settle in together. After seven weeks in the apartment, Amy soon discovers that she
has been nominated for a local Chemistry award and is told that in order to receive it, she has to
increase her workload and commit to several clubs as a requirement. Amy agrees. Amy is thrilled
and when she tells Jake he tells her he is proud of her success. As he says this, Amy notices that
he doesnt seem as thrilled about this as she is. Nevertheless, Amy begins working harder than
she has in years and begins to use all of her time to earn this award. While Amy is working for
this award, Jake is beginning to resent his job. He considers the hours terrible, the hatred he
feels towards himself and his job are beginning to wear on him. No matter how much work he
does, he never feels like hes making a difference. In addition to that, he constantly watches how

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

7

happy Amy is and how close she is to that award and begins to feel resentment towards her too.
In order to cope with the amount of stress, anger, and resentment that is growing inside of him,
he begins to drink heavily and daily. At first Amy doesnt seem to realize what is happening with
Jake and continues to work to the point where you could consider her to be oblivious. However
one night as Amy is working, Jake comes home inebriated and begins throwing things.. She tries
to ask him whats going on with him and he tells her that he hates life in general. She begins to
get confused and tells him to explain what he means. He tells her that he hates his job because
everyone that he deals with hates him and he doesnt feel like he makes a difference in anyones
life. She objects to that and tells him that he does and that she is among many people to feel
grateful for what he does every day. He doesnt believe her and begins to throw things across the
room causing them to break. Amy pleads with him to stop but he doesnt listen. He then tells her
that its mainly her fault for his drinking. She becomes even more confused. Jake tells her that
while he is miserable about his life, she is oblivious to this and goes on with her as if nothing
bad has happened to her. She tells him that it was not her intention to be nominated for the
award. But now that she has been, she will work her hardest to earn it. He doesnt say anything
but walks over to her and slaps her across the face and for a brief moment he looks remorseful,
then Amy cries out that he shouldnt have hit her and that he has problems. When Jake hears
that, he walks back over to her and begins to punch her and kick her multiple times. After this
event, Amy presses charges against him and breaks up with him.
After five days, the participants from each group will return to the research area.
Particpants will be instructed not to talk to one another while they wait for the researchers to
come and get them. The researchers will have the participants come into a room individually
with them and sit at a small table. The researchers will be trained for this interview to ensure that

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

8

each one is conducted in a similar way. Once seated, the researchers will have each participant
answer a series of questions regarding the details in the two videos previously viewed. The
interviews will consist of questions reading factual details such as how long were the couples
were together, what were the names of the couple, what was the issue, how did each person react,
etc.
Projected Implications
Our hypothesis for this study would be that the participants in the control group would be
less likely to develop an emotional response to the first video scenario and thus would retain less
information over time compared to the experimental group which would be more likely to
develop an emotional response to the second video scenario and they would be more likely to be
able to recall more information.
If our hypothesis is supported by the results of this study, then the participants would
further help provide evidence that memory can enhance the amount of contextual details
remembered from a detailed event such as the study that examined the brain activity in the fMRI
scanner (Sharot, Delgado, & Phelps, 2004). Participants would also help show that emotions can
influence our memory and oftentimes those emotions are the piece of our memory that can affect
us the most of all (Schmidt, Patnaik, & Kensinger, 2011).
If our hypothesis is not supported by the results of this study, then we cannot say for
certain that emotions are a key part to remembering semantic details. For some people, one way
to test whether an object is able to produce some type of emotion is to test them using colors and
connecting them to different scenes (Rimmele, Davachi, Petrov, Dougal, & Phelps, 2011) and for
some people, when they were tested, the negative scenes were shown to have participants have a
significantly longer time span in remembering if the color went with the negative scenes as

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

9

compared to the neutral scenes. If this were to be the case then further research would needed to
be done in order to see if memory does play an independent part for remembrance or if there are
any possible alternative theories that future studies could explore more in depth in the future.
Factors that may impact the outcome of this study include study size, participants failing
to return for the interview to capture memory of details, including participants that screen
negative for psychological disorders but actually have one, participants having an unanticipated
emotional reaction to the video that they view, and the way in which the questions about details
remembered are stated just to name a few.
Study size that is too small, or high rates of participants that dont complete the study
may fail to show an association between emotional response and recall of semantic details when
one really exists. To mitigate this we will promote participation in the study across campus
among students. To improve the likelihood that participants will complete the study, we will
provide only part of the compensation at the first meeting and the rest when they complete the
follow up interview. If we were to compensate the participants for their time in the study all at
once, we may not be able to finish the study due to the study participants no longer showing up
to continue their role in this.
If we were to screen for potential psychological disorders, we may not be able to say if
someone has a disorder due to the fact that many disorders have similar symptoms. One
symptom that a person shows consistently may be part of five different disorders and sometimes
one of the only ways to determine the difference between the disorders is to determine the cause
behind the behavior being exhibited. Another thing that may happen in this study is that the
participants may end up experiencing the opposite type of reactions than what we have
hypothesized. To clarify, they may experience emotion regarding a neutral scene. They may have

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

10

a bit of difficulty remembering the details in the video scenario if the questionnaires are pushed
to a degree of difficulty. Based on the previous research regarding contextual details (Bodner &
Richardson-Champion, 2007) if we were to phrase the questions for the scenarios in a range of
difficulty, then the participants would be less likely to remember the contextual details as well as
compared to testing them using a range of easy questions that do not require a great deal of
difficulty when answering. Using the questionnaire, we would also ask them about how
confident they were in their answers. Studies have shown that participants who are tested on
memory for whatever reason, the more times the researchers ask them how confident they are in
their decisions, the more likely the participants will be in answering that they are very confident
with what they chose (Rimmele, Davachi, Petrov, Dougal, & Phelps, 2011; Rimmele, Davachi, &
Phelps, 2012).
Emotion has been known to enhance what stays in our memories and has been proven in
previous studies to increase the likelihood of remembrance of emotional events throughout our
lives. Even though previous studies has shown that emotion can play a part as to why we
remember certain pieces of information better than others, we cannot say for certain that emotion
is what makes us remember some things more than others.
Regardless, we are trying to gain a better understanding about how emotion affects
memory through multiple variables in life. Even if the results from this study showed that
emotion does in fact have some type of effect on memory, we cannot say indefinitely that
emotions are one of the reasons as to why we have memories of all types throughout our lives.
That is not the point to what our study is about. We are simply trying to find out how much
emotion can affect our memories and how much detail can be remembered from those memories
with emotions added into them.

EMOTION AND SEMANTIC DETAIL RECALL

11
References

Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety:
Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 893-897.

Bodner, G. E., & Richardson-Champion, D. (2007). Remembering is in the details: Effects of test-list
context on memory for an event. Memory, 15(7), 718-729.

Rimmele, U., Davachi, L., Petrov, R., Dougal, S., & Phelps, E. A. (2011). Emotion enhances the
subjective feeling of remembering, despite lower accuracy for contextual details. Emotion, 11(3),
553-562.

Rimmele, U., Davachi, L., & Phelps, E. A. (2012). Memory for time and place contributes to enhanced
confidence in memories for emotional event. Emotion, 12(4), 834-846.

Schmidt, K., Patnaik, P., & Kensinger, E. A. (2011). Emotion's influence on memory for spatial and
temporal context. Cognition and Emotion, 25(2), 229-243.

Sharot, T., Delgado, M. R., & Phelps, E. A. (2004). How emotion enhances the feeling of remembering.
Nature Neuroscience, 7(12), 1376-1380.