Emotion and cognition Flashcards
What has psychological and neuroscientific research revealed about the relationship between emotion and cognition?
That emotion and cognition are intertwined. Emotional experiences often influence how we process and remember information.
How do emotional memories typically differ from neutral ones?
Emotional memories are often more vivid and persistent, but even highly emotional memories can fade over time.
What are the components of an emotional response?
Emotions involve physiological changes (e.g. arousal), subjective feelings, and associated behaviors.
What is the adaptive function of emotion in cognition?
Emotions guide how we respond to events by shaping how we experience them and evaluating their personal relevance and impact on well-being.
How does emotion influence memory?
Emotional episodes are often better remembered because they draw our attention and are connected to personally significant issues or people, which strengthens memory consolidation.
What early theory tried to explain the effect of emotion on memory?
Freud’s theory of repression, which proposed that emotional memories could be pushed out of conscious awareness due to distress.
What did Levinger and Clark (1961) find in their study on emotional word associations?
Participants had slower reaction times and higher galvanic skin responses to emotionally charged words and struggled to recall associations immediately after the test—supporting Freud’s repression theory.
What did Parkin et al. (1982) find when they replicated Levinger and Clark’s study with a time delay?
Emotion reduced immediate recall, but after 7 days, associations to emotionally charged words were remembered better than neutral ones—refuting the repression theory.
What is a flashbulb memory, according to Brown and Kulik (1977)?
A vivid, long-lasting, and emotionally intense memory of a significant event, believed to be stored through rehearsal and discussion.
Why are flashbulb memories thought to be more accurate and vivid than other memories?
Because they are linked to emotionally charged events, which enhance encoding and rehearsal, making them distinct from other types of memory.
