Developmental continuity in emotion effects on memory: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials Public

Abstract

Emotion has powerful effects on memory, and emotional memories can impact individuals’ well being both in the present moment and over time. These emotional memory enhancement (EME) effects have been studied extensively in adults, but much less is known about EME across development. In the present research, we examined the developmental trajectory of emotion effects on recognition memory between middle childhood and adulthood (8E30 years), using the same stimuli, paradigm, and analyses for all participants, in order to make direct comparisons of EME effects across this age range and between genders. In Paper 1, we examined a) the magnitude of EME effects for negative and positive versus neutral pictures across the age range and between genders, and b) whether age or gender impacted participants’ subjective ratings of the pictures or their mood over the course of the study. In Paper 2, we employed eventErelated potentials (ERPs) to assess the neural activity elicited by processing emotional and neutral pictures, and tested for age and gender difference in the ERPs elicited by negative, neutral, and positive pictures during memory encoding. In Paper 3, we again utilized ERPs to examine emotion effects, this time on neural activity elicited during a recognition memory test. Together, the results reported in these papers suggest that there is remarkable consistency in how emotion impacts both processing of and memory for pictures between genders and across the developmental window spanning middle childhood through adulthood.    

Table of Contents

General introduction ...........................................................................................................1

Paper 1: Emotion effects on memory from childhood through adulthood: Consistent enhancement and adult gender differences ..14

Abstract .................................................................................................................15

Introduction .................................................................................16

Method ........................................................................................22

Materials ...........................................................................22

Session 1 ..................................................................24

Session 2 ..................................................................25

Analytic Approach ...............................................................26

Results ..............................................................................................27

Mood Ratings .......................................................................28

Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) Ratings ......................28

Subjective Ratings of Picture Valence and Arousal .........................29

Recognition memory performance .............................................31

Discussion ..................................................................................33

References ..................................................................................41

Tables .......................................................................................48

Figures .......................................................................................53

Paper 2: Emotion effects on event-related potentials are consistent from childhood through adulthood ......57

Abstract .....................................................................................58

Introduction .................................................................................59

Method ......................................................................................66

Materials ...........................................................................67

Session 1 ..................................................................69

Session 2 ..................................................................70

Data reduction ............................................................71

EEG data .........................................................71

Event-related potentials .......................................72

Analytic approach: Memory data ......................................73

Analytic approach: ERP data ..........................................73

Results .......................................................................................74

Memory Performance Data ......................................................75

ERPs for All Trials ...............................................................75

Early posterior negativity (EPN) ......................................75

Negative versus neutral ........................................75

Positive versus neutral .........................................76

Late positive potential, 400-1000ms (early LPP) ...................76

Negative versus neutral .......................................76

Positive versus neutral .........................................77

Late positive potential, 1000-2000ms (late LPP) ...................77

Negative versus neutral ........................................77

Positive versus neutral..........................................77

Summary of emotion effects on ERPs ................................78

ERPs for Correctly Remembered (‘Hit’) Trials ..............................78

Late positive potential, 400-1000ms (early LPP) ...................79

Negative versus neutral ........................................79

Positive versus neutral .........................................79

Late positive potential, 1000-2000ms (late LPP) ...................79

Negative versus neutral ........................................80

Positive versus neutral .........................................80

Summary of emotion effects on ‘hit’ ERPs ..........................80

Discussion ..................................................................................81

References ..................................................................................89

Tables ......................................................................................109

Figures .....................................................................................112

Paper 3: Emotion modulates the neural correlates of recognition memory from childhood through adulthood ....117

Abstract ....................................................................................118

Introduction ...............................................................................119

Method .....................................................................................128

Materials ..........................................................................129

Session 1 ................................................................131

Session 2 ................................................................132

Data reduction ..........................................................133

EEG data .......................................................133

Event-related potentials .......................................134

Analytic approach: Memory data ....................................134

Analytic approach: ERP data .........................................135

Results ......................................................................................136

Midfrontal Old/New Effect ....................................................137

Central-Parietal Old/New Effect ..............................................138

Discussion .................................................................................140

References .................................................................................149

Tables ......................................................................................169

Figures .....................................................................................172

General discussion ................................................................................177

References ..........................................................................................186 

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Developmental
Mot-clé	Memory
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Bauer, Patricia J., Emory University
Committee Members	Goodman, Sherryl, Emory University Manns, Joseph R., Emory University Dilks, Daniel D. , Emory University Fivush, Robyn, Emory University

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