A Review on Emotion-Enhanced Recognition Memory: Response Bias and Context Caused by Emotional Stimuli

The current study aims to present the main lines of the topic by compiling the literature on the effect of emotion on recognition memory and address some considerations for future studies by highlighting the attention-grabbing points related to emotion-memory interaction. A growing body of literature has demonstrated that emotional stimuli are better remembered than their neutral equivalents. Based on these common findings, research in the relevant literature is reviewed in detail regarding various approaches that define and explain emotion; and the effect of emotional dimensions, which are defined within the framework of different approaches, on recognition memory is mentioned. Empirical studies are also reviewed by including the findings on the response biases that emotion might cause. On the other hand, the factor affecting memory performance is not solely due to emotional stimuli' dimensions. Instead, memory performance might be positively affected by the context of emotional stimuli. Additionally, how emotional memory is studied in a controlled laboratory setting is discussed. Within this context, emotional databases developed to investigate emotion-memory interaction and databases designed for research to be carried out in Turkey are discussed. To sum up, within the scope of the current review, it is concluded that future studies on emotion and recognition memory interaction should take response bias caused by emotion, emotional context, and type of emotional stimuli into account to reach more consistent results. Keywords: Emotion, recognition memory, response bias, context, databases

Electronic visualization tools in education

Purpose of the article is to analyze the influence of electronic visualization tools on the growth of students’ cognitive activity. En el estudio participaron were 108 students aged from 17 to 21. Students were asked to participate in a survey that allowed them to identify popular electronic resources that provide visualization in education. The survey was conducted with C. D. Spielberger method to study the level of cognitive activity before the use of electronic visualization tools and in the process of their use. The study showed that the use of electronic visualization tools helps to increase attention, students’ cognitive activity and reduces fatigue. Modern electronic visualization tools contribute to the students’ emotional memory development and form professional competencies.

Neuronal activity in the human amygdala and hippocampus enhances emotional memory encoding

Emotional events are often easier to recall, and comprise our most valuable memories. Here, as subjects performed a memory task in which they recalled emotional stimuli more readily than neutral stimuli, we used direct brain recording and stimulation in the hippocampus and amygdala to identify how the brain prioritizes emotional information for memory encoding. High-frequency activity (HFA), a correlate of local neuronal spiking, increased in both hippocampus and amygdala when subjects successfully encoded emotionally arousing stimuli. Direct electrical stimulation applied to these regions during encoding decreased HFA and selectively impaired retrieval for emotional stimuli. Finally, depressed subjects' memory was biased more by valence than arousal, and they exhibited a congruent increase in HFA as a function of valence. Our findings thus provide evidence that emotional stimuli up-regulate activity in the amygdala--hippocampus circuit to enhance memory for emotional information, and suggest that targeted modulation of this circuit alters emotional memory processes.

Split-Second Unlearning: Developing a Theory of Psychophysiological Dis-ease

Psychophysiological “stress” underpins many conditions including anxiety, depression, phobias, chronic fatigue syndrome and non-specific musculoskeletal pain such as fibromyalgia. In this article we develop an understanding of chronic psychophysiological stress from a psychological educational perspective, by drawing on supporting evidence that significant emotional events in early life (traumatic and benign) can influence health and well-being later in life. We suggest that traumatic events instigate psychophysiological “stress” responses and the formation of emotional memory images (EMIs) within very short time frames, i.e., “split-second learning.” Once formed these emotional memories are triggered in daily living “re-playing” psychophysiological stress responses, resulting in chronic psychophysiological “dis-ease.” We describe a novel therapeutic approach to scan clients for mannerisms signifying a subconscious “freeze-like” stress response that involves the client as a curious observer within their own experience, feeding back the non-verbal cues as they arrive in the moment. By breaking down the observable fragments of their split-second Pavlovian response to the trigger, clients can detach their EMI from the psychophysiology stress response, i.e., “split-second unlearning.” Our split-second unlearning model recognizes the EMI as a barrier to moving forward and needs to be unlearned before the client can become naturally adaptive again. We argue that this approach places the client at the center of the work without the need of getting bogged down in a life-long narrative.

Time-dependent emotional memory transformation: divergent pathways of item memory and contextual dependency

Emotional memory can persist strikingly long, but it is believed that not all its elements are protected against the fading effects of time. So far, studies of emotional episodic memory have mostly investigated retention up to 24h post-encoding, and revealed that central emotional features (items) are usually strengthened, while contextual binding of the event is reduced. However, even though it is known for neutral memories that central versus contextual elements evolve differently with longer passage of time, the time-dependent evolution of emotional memories remains unclear. Hypothetically, compared to neutral memories, emotional item memory becomes increasingly stronger, accompanied by accelerated decay of – already fragile – links with their original encoding contexts, resulting in progressive reductions in contextual dependency. Here, we tested these predictions in a large-scale study. Participants encoded emotional and neutral episodes, and were assessed 30 minutes (N = 40), one day (N = 40), one week (N = 39), or two weeks (N = 39) later on item memory, contextual dependency, and subjective quality of memory. The results show that, with the passage of time, emotional memories were indeed characterized by increasingly stronger item memory and weaker contextual dependency. Interestingly, analyses of the subjective quality of memories revealed that stronger memory for emotional items with time was expressed in familiarity, whereas increasingly smaller contextual dependency for emotional episodes was reflected in recollection. Together, these findings uncover the time-dependent transformation of emotional episodic memories, thereby shedding light on the ways healthy and maladaptive human memories may develop.

Reconsolidation behavioral updating of human emotional memory: A comprehensive review and unified analysis of successes, replication failures, and clinical translation

The annulment of a human emotional memory through reconsolidation behavioral updating has been documented in over twenty laboratory studies since the first such report in 2010. However, fourteen studies have reported non-replication, the cause(s) of which remain unclear. This review examines all successful and unsuccessful studies in detail, in an attempt to identify (a) the specific probable causes of non-replication and (b) how clinical translation might optimally be designed. For analyzing non-replications, a set of criteria is defined for principled identification of specific moments of prediction error (PE) in experimental procedures, including latent cause transitions, based on a preponderance of empirical evidence. A previously overlooked element of experimental procedure is in that way identified as being potentially decisive, and a unified, testable explanation is proposed for behavioral updating successes and failures in terms of the presence or absence of a PE experience. That in turn allows successful studies to be compared for the internal experiences induced in subjects, rather than compared for their external procedures, revealing an invariant set of three experiences shared by all successful updating studies despite their diverse procedures. Clinical translation, defined as replication of those experiences, not any particular procedure, is illustrated by an actual case, one of many published cases that have documented prompt transformational change produced by that specific methodology, suggesting memory reconsolidation as the mechanism of change. Lastly, the core empirical findings of successful reconsolidation updating studies are compared with previously proposed frameworks of memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy, exposing significant departures from scientific fidelity.

Awake ripples enhance emotional memory encoding in the human brain

Intracranial recordings from the human amygdala and the hippocampus during an emotional memory encoding and discrimination task reveal increased awake sharp-wave/ripples (aSWR) after encoding of emotional compared to neutral stimuli. Further, post-encoding aSWR-locked memory reinstatement in the amygdala and the hippocampus was predictive of later memory discrimination. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence that post-encoding aSWRs enhance memory for emotional events.