Determining the effects of emotion on prospective memory performance

Prospective memory is the ability to remember to complete future intentions. Throughout the study of prospective memory, the use of emotional stimuli tends to lead to contradictory effects. Some studies suggest that emotional stimuli, particularly positive stimuli, lead to better prospective memory performance. However, emotional stimuli have also been associated with detrimental effects or even no effect on prospective memory. This study aimed to further investigate the potential influence of both positive and negative emotions on prospective memory. College students completed three blocks of an n-back task with positive and negative emotionally valenced images in the prospective memory blocks for the Experimental condition and neutral images in the Control condition. Results revealed that although there were no differences between positive and negative stimuli, the emotional stimuli overall decreased prospective memory performance. Examination of ongoing task data suggests that emotional images may have suppressed the spontaneous retrieval process.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Gershman, Danielle

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shelton, Jill
• Howell, Ashley N.; Madden, Julie
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Emotion
• Prospective memory

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/727

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1896