Emotion and Reappraisal Differentially Affect Children's Recall and Recognition Memory for Words

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Stimuli that are more emotionally arousing are better remembered than stimuli that are not. Specifically, arousal appears to enhance memory at the initial stage of encoding (Bradley et al., 1992), an effect which is often studied using visual stimuli. In order to further understand this, arousal can be experimentally manipulated using cognitive reappraisal paradigms. Reappraisal, in this case, reduces the arousal level of the stimulus, so that differential effects of arousal on memory can be analyzed. The enhancing effect of emotion on memory is mixed when it comes to the child development literature. Since children become better readers and “word sponges” through their elementary school years, it is therefore valuable to use word-based stimuli to examine memory for emotional content. There is evidence that reappraisal paradigms are valid in children (McRae et al., 2012; Dennis & Hajcak, 2009), although this is often done with memory for picture images (Leventon & Bauer, 2016). In our study, we used a reappraisal paradigm to explore school-aged children’s memory for emotional words. We hypothesized that positive and negative (emotion) words would be better remembered than non-emotional (neutral) words. We also expected that non-reappraised words would be better remembered than reappraised words (since arousal level is reduced), and that neutral words would be remembered the poorest.
Eight- to thirteen-year-old children (n=16 thus far) were given a word encoding and memory task, normed to a minimum 2nd-grade reading level. Sixty target words (20 neutral, 20 positive, 20 negative) were presented in sentences, with the target word bolded. For the emotion words receiving the manipulation, the sentences were written to have a calming, arousal-reducing effect on the word. As a comprehension and validity check of our manipulation, the child participants were asked to subjectively rate the arousal level of each sentence as they saw it. Ten minutes later, they were tested on their free-recall and recognition memory for the target words.
Results showed robust validation of our manipulation and study design. At encoding, children rated sentences with non-reappraised emotion words as significantly more arousing than reappraised, p<.001, and those were all more significantly arousing than neutral, p<.001 (see Figure 1). This supports that the participants were appropriately responding to the intended emotional quality of the words, and, importantly, that reappraisal paradigms using word stimuli are valid at this age. Regarding free-recall memory, children recalled significantly more emotion words overall than neutral words, p=.042, ηp2=.127 (see Figure 2). There was also an emerging effect of reappraisal manipulation, p=.061, ηp2=.244, such that reappraised words were actually being recalled more than non-reappraised, with neutral words still recalled the least. On the other hand, recognition memory across conditions (d’=1.60-1.98) was not significantly affected by emotion or manipulation. This might speak to word recognition memory being less sensitive to emotion and reappraisal effects at this age, as compared to free-recall. We are continuing to investigate these effects with an increased sample.

Authors

• Carolyn Ann Koch, Towson University
  Presenting Author

• Jacqueline S. Leventon, Towson University
  Non-Presenting Author