scholarly journals Development of a Semantically Related Emotional and Neutral Stimulus Set

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma E. Barnacle ◽  
Christopher R. Madan ◽  
Deborah Talmi
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Neutral Stimulus ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Commercial Use ◽  
Stimulus Set ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Neutral Colour

AbstractWhen measuring memory performance for emotional and neutral stimuli many studies are confounded by not controlling for differential semantic relatedness between stimulus sets. This could lead to the misattribution of the cause of an emotional enhancement of memory effect (EEM), because differential semantic relatedness also contributes to the EEM. Participants rated static visual emotional and neutral scenes on measures of arousal, valence, and semantic relatedness. These measures were used to create a novel stimulus set, which – in addition to demonstrating significant differences in measures of valence and arousal – also controlled for within-set semantic relatedness; thus resolving a crucial issue that has not previously been addressed in the use of visual emotional stimuli. As an added advantage, the stimulus set developed here are controlled for measures of objective visual complexity, also implicated as confounding to the investigation of memory. This article introduces a collection of emotional and neutral colour images which can be organised flexibly according to experimental requirements. These stimuli are made freely available for non-commercial use within the scientific community.

Pharmacologically Increasing Sleep Spindles Enhances Recognition for Negative and High-arousal Memories

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1597-1610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik J. Kaestner ◽  
John T. Wixted ◽  
Sara C. Mednick
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Sleep Spindles ◽  
Sleep Spindle ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Valence And Arousal

Sleep affects declarative memory for emotional stimuli differently than it affects declarative memory for nonemotional stimuli. However, the interaction between specific sleep characteristics and emotional memory is not well understood. Recent studies on how sleep affects emotional memory have focused on rapid eye movement sleep (REM) but have not addressed non-REM sleep, particularly sleep spindles. This is despite the fact that sleep spindles are implicated in declarative memory as well as neural models of memory consolidation (e.g., hippocampal neural replay). Additionally, many studies examine a limited range of emotional stimuli and fail to disentangle differences in memory performance because of variance in valence and arousal. Here, we experimentally increase non-REM sleep features, sleep spindle density, and SWS, with pharmacological interventions using zolpidem (Ambien) and sodium oxybate (Xyrem) during daytime naps. We use a full spread of emotional stimuli to test all levels of valence and arousal. We find that increasing sleep spindle density increases memory discrimination (da) for highly arousing and negative stimuli without altering measures of bias (ca). These results indicate a broader role for sleep in the processing of emotional stimuli with differing effects based on arousal and valence, and they raise the possibility that sleep spindles causally facilitate emotional memory consolidation. These findings are discussed in terms of the known use of hypnotics in individuals with emotional mood disorders.

Emotions Under the Skin

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Silva ◽  
Ana Cláudia Ferreira ◽  
Isabel Soares ◽  
Francisco Esteves
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Style ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
The Other ◽  
Regulatory Function ◽  
Physiological Reactivity ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Emotional Pictures ◽  
Valence And Arousal

Abstract. The present study examined physiological reactivity to emotional stimuli as a function of attachment style. Skin conductance responses (SCRs) and heart rate (HR) changes were simultaneously recorded while participants engaged in a visual attentional task. The task included positive, neutral, and negative emotional pictures, and required the identification of a target (neutral picture rotated 90° to the left or right), among a stream of pictures in which an emotional distracter (positive or negative) was presented. Participants additionally rated each of the emotional distracters for valence and arousal. Behavioral results on the attentional task showed that positive pictures facilitated overall target detection for all participants, compared to negative and neutral pictures, and that anxiously attached participants had significantly lower accuracy scores, relative to the other groups. Affective ratings indicated that positive pictures were rated as being more pleasant than negative ones, although no differences were found in HR changes to picture valence. In contrast, negative pictures were evaluated as being highly arousing. Consistent with this, negative pictures elicited larger SCRs in both insecure anxious and avoidant groups, especially for the anxious while the secure group showed SCRs unaffected by stimuli’s arousal. Present results show that individuals with different attachment styles reveal distinct patterns of attentional bias, appraisal, and physiological reactivity toward emotionally arousing stimuli. These findings further highlight the regulatory function of the attachment system.

Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel E. Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

To see or not to see: The roles of item properties and language knowledge in Chinese missing logographeme effect

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1113-1139
Author(s):  
Xiuli Tong ◽  
Qinli Deng ◽  
Hélène Deacon ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Suiping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Linear Mixed Effect Model ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
Bottom Position ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Item Properties ◽  
The Right ◽  
Omission Rate

AbstractThis study examined how language knowledge and item properties (i.e., semantic relatedness and position) influenced Chinese missing logographeme effects. Eighty-four Chinese readers and 53 English readers were asked to search for the Chinese logographeme 口 while reading a Chinese prose passage. The target 口 appeared in five different positions (i.e., left, right, top, bottom, or inside), varying its degree of semantic relatedness to its embedded characters. The generalized linear mixed-effect model revealed a significant interaction between semantic relatedness and position in Chinese, but not in English, readers when visual complexity and frequency were controlled. For Chinese readers, a higher omission rate occurred when 口 appeared in the top and inside positions and exhibited low semantic relatedness with its embedded characters, whereas 口 was omitted more when it was positioned on the right and exhibited high semantic relatedness to its embedded characters. English readers exhibited a different omission pattern: 口 was omitted more when it appeared in the left or right position irrespective of semantic relatedness. In addition, 口 was omitted more in the inside, rather than the bottom, position. These findings suggest that the omission rate of the logographeme is determined by item properties at the sublexical level and the reader’s language knowledge.

Judgment and memory performance for emotional stimuli in patients with alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Labudda ◽  
Saso Todorovski ◽  
Hans J. Markowitsch ◽  
Matthias Brand
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Korsakoff Syndrome

scholarly journals Semantic relatedness retroactively boosts memory and promotes memory interdependence across episodes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Antony ◽  
America Romero ◽  
Anthony Vierra ◽  
Rebecca Luenser ◽  
Robert Hawkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Paired Associate ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Promising Candidate ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
New Learning

Two fundamental issues in memory research concern when later experiences strengthen or weaken initial memories and when the two memories become linked or remain independent. A promising candidate for explaining these issues is semantic relatedness. Here, across five paired associate learning experiments (N=1000), we systematically varied the semantic relatedness between initial and later cues, initial and later targets, or both. We found that learning retroactively benefited long-term memory performance for semantically related words (versus unshown control words), and these benefits increased as a function of relatedness. Critically, memory dependence between initial and later pairs also increased with relatedness, suggesting that pre-existing semantic relationships interdependence for memories formed across episodes. We also found that modest retroactive benefits, but not interdependencies, emerged when subjects learned via studying rather than practice testing. These findings demonstrate that semantic relatedness during new learning retroactively strengthens old associations while scaffolding new ones into well-fortified memory traces.

French adaptation of a film music stimulus set: Normative emotional ratings of valence and arousal prompted by music excerpts

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562110506
Author(s):  
Clémence Nineuil ◽  
Delphine Dellacherie ◽  
Séverine Samson
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Film Music ◽  
French Population ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Stimulus Set ◽  
Musical Excerpts ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Music Stimulus

The aim of this study was to obtain French affective norms for the film music stimulus set (FMSS). This data set consists of a relatively homogeneous series of musical stimuli made up of film music excerpts, known to trigger strong emotion. The 97 musical excerpts were judged by 194 native French participants using a simplified normative procedure in order to assess valence and arousal judgments. This normalization will (1) provide researchers with standardized rated affective music to be used with a French population, (2) enable the investigation of individual listeners’ differing emotional judgments, and (3) explore how cultural differences affect the ratings of musical stimuli. Our results, in line with those obtained in Finland and Spain, demonstrated the FMSS to be robust and interculturally valid within Western Europe. Age, sex, education, and musical training were not found to have any effects on emotional judgments. In conclusion, this study provides the scientific community with a standardized-stimulus set of musical excerpts whose emotional valence and arousal have been validated by a sampling of the French population.

scholarly journals The paradox of age: an analysis of responses by aging Brazilians to International Affective Picture System (IAPS)

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weyler Galvão Pôrto ◽  
Paulo Henrique Ferreira Bertolucci ◽  
Orlando Francisco Amodeo Bueno
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Statistical Difference ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
International Affective Picture System ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Subjective Analysis ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Valence And Arousal

OBJECTIVE: To explore the possible differences in subjective analysis of the emotional stimuli from the International Affective Picture System between elderly and young samples. METHOD: 187 elderly subjects ranked the International Affective Picture System images according to the directions from the Manual of Affective Ratings. Their scores were compared to those obtained from International Affective Picture System studies with young people. RESULT: There is an age-related difference in arousal and valence in the International Affective Picture System rating. The correlation between affective valence and arousal is strong, and negative for the elderly. The expected versus the observed frequency of International Affective Picture System images between elderly and young samples show a statistical difference. CONCLUSION: This study shows an inter-age statistical dichotomy in how elderly and young people subjectively evaluate International Affective Picture System images.

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