Negative Emotion Enhances Memory for the Sequential Unfolding of a Naturalistic Experience

Dev, Deea K.; Wardell, Victoria; Checknita, Katherine J.; Te, Alessandra A.; Petrucci, Aria S.; Le, M. Lindy; Madan, Christopher R.; Palombo, Daniela J.

Abstract

The events of our lives unfold over time. When remembering these events, we often reference information about when they occurred and their sequential unfolding. How does negative emotion affect our ability to reconstruct the elements of an event in the correct temporal order? This study explored this question using naturalistic film stimuli. Human participants (N = 276) saw video clips varying in emotion (high vs. low). Later, participants were asked to reconstruct the events in the encoded order. Participants’ temporal-order memory was better in the high-versus low-emotion condition. Free-recall data showed that participants remembered the high-emotion video with greater vividness, though consistency of details did not differ, nor did spontaneous ordering of clips. Our findings shed light on the multifaceted effects of negative emotion on memory, suggesting that highly negative events are reconstructed with greater temporal fidelity when order is a task demand. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 28, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 4, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Apr 21, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
• Print ISSN: 2211-3681
• Electronic ISSN: 2211-3681
• Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 510-521
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000015
• Keywords: Applied Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7715461
• Publisher URL: https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fmac0000015
• Additional Information: ©American Psychological Association, 2022 This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000015.