Memory bias for negative emotional words in recognition memory is driven by effects of category membership

White, Corey and Kapucu, Aycan and Bruno, Davide and Rotello, Caren and Ratcliff, Roger (2014) Memory bias for negative emotional words in recognition memory is driven by effects of category membership. Cognition & Emotion, 28. pp. 867-880.

Text emotion_bias.docx Download (71kB)

Abstract

Recognition memory studies often find that emotional items are more likely than neutral items to be labeled as studied. Previous work suggests this bias is driven by increased memory strength/familiarity for emotional items. We explored strength and bias interpretations of this effect with the conjecture that emotional stimuli might seem more familiar because they share features with studied items from the same category. Categorical effects were manipulated in a recognition task by presenting lists with a small, medium, or large proportion of emotional words. The liberal memory bias for emotional words was only observed when a medium or large proportion of categorized words were presented in the lists. Similar, though weaker, effects were observed with categorized words that were not emotional (animal names). These results suggest that liberal memory bias for emotional items is mainly driven by effects of category membership.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in Cognition and Emotion, December 2014, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02699931.2013.858028
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Anna Kirpichnikova
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2015 18:40
Last Modified:	22 Sep 2016 16:10
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/456

Actions (login required)

View Item