Remembering pictures: pleasure and arousal in memory
/ 7 min read
Table of Contents
FM3 Literature Claustrum, Bradley
Remembering Pictures Pleasure and Arousal in Memory
Annotations
(23/10/2023, 07:48:27 )
Argument for two dimensions: valence and arousal
“It has been demonstrated numerous times that emotional stimuli vary along two primary dimensions of affective valence and arousal (e.g., Russell, 1980; Tellegen, 1985; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990).” (Bradley et al., p. 379)
“As Lang et al. (1990) emphasized, the verbal dimensions of affective valence and arousal can be directly related to the behavioral dimensions of direction and vigor. In this scheme, pleasant events are defined as those that primarily engage approach or appetitive behaviors, whereas unpleasant events are those prompting withdrawal, avoidance, or defensive actions” (Bradley et al., p. 388)
Attention and interest may also be involved; however: two main dimensions for emotion
“As discussed above, variables relating to attention, interest, or effort may also be involved. Regardless of its underlying multiplicity, factor analyses consistently confirm the existence of such an organizing dimension in emotion.” (Bradley et al., p. 388)
Both dimensions to have influence on encoding
“There are two interesting ramifications of these data. First, they indicate that the dimensions of valence and arousal are both salient at encoding.” (Bradley et al., p. 387)
Here: Free Recall test
“Immediate-recall procedure. Following the rating procedure, each subject was given an incidental free-recall test, in which he or she was instructed to write down, in any order, a word or phrase describing each experimental slide that could be remembered (e.g., cow, baby, or couple kissing).” (Bradley et al., p. 382) Free recall here
arousal had significant effect on memory
“Level of arousal had a significant effect on immediate-recall performance, F(4, 340) = 20.39, MSe = .036. Newman-Keuls post hoc comparisons indicated that slides rated as highly arousing were remembered better than slides rated in all lower categories.” (Bradley et al., p. 382)
“If emotional events are considered to be organized by the dimensions of affective valence (pleasantness) and arousal, the data obtained here demonstrate that memory retrieval is most sensitive to differences in the arousal level of previously encoded emotional stimuli. In both immediate and delayed free recall, high-arousal materials led to better memory performance than materials rated lower in arousal (Experiment 1” (Bradley et al., p. 386)
“For instance, Maltzman, Kantor, and Langdon (1966) found greater recall for high-arousal words, in comparison with low-arousal words, on both an immediate memory test and a delayed test administered 30 min later.” (Bradley et al., p. 386)
“A number of studies in the past have only found a positive effect of high arousal on long-term memory tests; on immediate tests, poorer memory performance was obtained (Craik & Blankstein, 1975).” (Bradley et al., p. 386)
“More recent studies have also concluded that high arousal can impair, rather than facilitate, memory.” (Bradley et al., p. 386)
CLA valence “Pleasantness” also had significant effect on memory performance
“A second analysis showed that the pleasantness of the slide also had a significant effect on the slides recalled, F(4, 340) = 14.39, MSe = .033.” (Bradley et al., p. 382)
“Interestingly, folklore encourages the view that there is a strong relation between affective valence and memory performance. For instance, the adage that one “views the past through rose-colored glasses” attributes a central role to pleasantness by proposing that memory favors pleasant events.” (Bradley et al., p. 387)
Influence of valence on reaction time
“For slides never seen before, affective valence did have a significant impact on reaction time: Unpleasant slides resulted in significantly longer decision times than pleasant slides. Similar effects of valence and arousal were obtained for the skin conductance data: Both high-arousal slides and unpleasant slides prompted greater reactions at encoding.” (Bradley et al., p. 387)
Study design
“After rating a series of 60 slides on the dimensions of valence and arousal, an incidental free-recall test was conducted” (Bradley et al., p. 381)
“Incidental memory performance for pictures that varied along the affective dimensions of pleasantness and arousal was assessed. For both an immediate and delayed (1 year later) freerecall task, only the arousal dimension had a stable effect on memory performance: Pictures rated as highly arousing were remembered better than low-arousal stimuli. This effect was corroborated in a speeded recognition test, in which high-arousal materials encoded earlier in the experiment produced faster reaction times than their low-arousal counterparts.” (Bradley et al., p. 379)
[[Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)]]
“Each slide was rated on the dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance using a pencil-and-paper version of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) rating system (Lang, 1980; Hodes, Cook, & Lang, 1985)” (Bradley et al., p. 381)
!400 “The valence dimension depicted a figure that ranged from happy to unhappy. The corresponding SAM figures ranged from smiling with raised eyebrows to frowning with knitted eyebrows. The arousal dimension ranged from excited to calm. The corresponding SAM figures ranged from having an active body and eyes wide open to having an inactive body and closed eyes” (Bradley et al., p. 381)
Comparison of methods for CLA arousal (e.g. Electrodermal Activity (EDA))
“Second, they suggest that the judged level of arousal is probably not solely determined by electrodermal reactivity at initial encoding. As mentioned earlier, both the amount of free viewing time and ratings of interest also relate to the arousal factor, attesting to other influences underlying this affective dimension.” (Bradley et al., p. 387)
!400 r = ? aber nicht besonders viele Ratings (Bradley et al., p. 380)
“A memory system sensitive to the arousal level of an event is a broadly functional survival tool. Behaviors that demand high mobilization of resources, regardless of whether these are directed toward approaching a desired object (e.g., a food source when hungry) or fleeing from a feared one (e.g., a predator in one’s environment), are good candidates for memory storage. Such intense actions are probably strongly related to survival, in terms of both preservative behaviors (such as eating, drinking, procreating, etc.) and protective ones, and may prove useful in future interactions with the environment. On the other hand, events low in arousal may often be unimportant or redundant with respect to successful environmental maneuvers, resulting in low priority for memory storage.” (Bradley et al., p. 388)
Maybe CLA periphery
“To the extent that the elaborated information represents bodily responses to arousing content, this proposed processing mechanism is also consistent with evidence that concurrently presented, peripheral stimulus information does not appear to be well-represented in episodic memories of arousing events.” (Bradley et al., p. 388)