effects of emotions and cognitive load on memory presented at the university of california, irvine...

Effects of Emotions and Cognitive Load on Memory

Presented at the University of California, Irvine

by

Namrata Mahajan

May 14, 2005

Acknowledgements

Sarah Roper-Coleman, UCI

Dr. Peter H. Ditto, UCIMentor

Dr. Valerie Jenness, UCIHonors SeminarInstructor

Research Assistants:

Tiffany Fan, UCIAllyson Dong,

UCI

Funding:Undergraduate

Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Memory is Important!!!

- Memory is important to be able to

function in everyday life! Riding a bicycle Counting change Driving Remembering the name of someone you just met

What is Memory?

Memory is the ability to use or to remember information that was previously encoded or processed (Ericsson & Chase, 1982).

Memory and Emotions

Mood Congruent Theory- We remember events that match our current mood.

Studies show that emotionally charged events are remembered better than ordinary, neutral events (e.g. Christianson, 1992).

Memory & Cognitive Load

• Cognitive Load- The “total amount of mental activity imposed on working-memory at an instance in time” (Cooper, 1998).

- Excessive cognitive loads affect memory and make learning more difficult.

Working-Memory Long-Term Memory

Hypotheses H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent better than mood-incongruent information.

H2 : Participants without cognitive load will remember information better than those with cognitive load.

H3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood- congruent information.

Methods

Methods1. Demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity etc).2. Emotion Elicitation Task

e.g. “Please describe three to five things that make you the most happy.”

3. Learning Task (30 slides with or without cognitive load).

10 happy 10 sad 10 neutral

4. Distracter Activity5. Recognition Task6. Debriefing

Happy Sad Neutral

X X X

Methods1. Demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity etc).2. Emotion Elicitation Task

e.g. “Please describe three to five things that make you the most happy.”

3. Learning Task (30 slides with or without cognitive load).

10 happy 10 sad 10 neutral

4. Distracter Activity5. Recognition Task6. Debriefing

Happy Sad Neutral

X X XNo Load

Load X X X

Happy

Sad

Neutral

Methods1. Demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity etc).2. Emotion Elicitation Task

e.g. “Please describe three to five things that make you the most happy.”

3. Learning Task (30 slides with or without cognitive load).

10 happy 10 sad 10 neutral

4. Distracter Activity5. Recognition Task6. Debriefing

Distracter Activity (Anagrams)

Nerd Amid Late TV

Retypes Brains

Old West Action

He Can Mock Jails

David Letterman

Britney Spears

Clint Eastwood

Michael Jackson

Methods1. Demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity etc).2. Emotion Elicitation Task

e.g. “Please describe three to five things that make you the most happy.”

3. Learning Task (30 slides with or without cognitive load).

10 happy 10 sad 10 neutral

4. Distracter Activity5. Recognition Task6. Debriefing

Methods1. Demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity etc).

2. Emotion Elicitation Task “Please describe three to five things

that make you the most happy.”3. Learning Task (30 slides with or without

cognitive load). 10 happy 10 sad 10 neutral

4. Distracter Activity5. Recognition Task

6. Debriefing

Results

68%

32%

Women

Men

Participants - Gender

N=200

Participants - Ethnicity

53%

13%

5%

19%

8%

2%Asian

Black

Hispanic

Native Hawaiian

Non-HispanicWhite

Biracial

H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy + - -

Sad - + -

Neutral - - +

H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy + - -

Sad - + -

Neutral - - +

Method

• Each participant given score out of a possible 20

• 20 = no false positives and no mistakes

H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.951 19.131 19.377

Sad 18.444 18.524 18.841

Neutral 18.406 18.406 18.500

H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.951 19.131 19.377

Sad 18.444 18.524 18.841

Neutral 18.406 18.406 18.500

H1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.951 19.131 19.377

Sad 18.444 18.524 18.841

Neutral 18.406 18.406 18.500

Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized

H2 : Participants without cognitive load will remember slides better than those with cognitive load.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy + + +

Sad + + +

Neutral + + +

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy - - -

Sad - - -

Neutral - - -

No Load Load

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.53 18.73 19.23

Sad 17.96 17.89 18.29

Neutral 18.42 18.52 18.55

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 19.35 19.52 19.52

Sad 18.80 19.00 19.25

Neutral 18.39 18.30 18.45

No Load

Load

Mean number of slides accurately recognized

Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized

Although not significant, there is a trend for participants without cognitive load to have higher accuracy rates than participants with cognitive load.

18.2

18.4

18.6

18.8

No Load LoadCognitive Load

Mean

Nu

mb

er

of

Slid

es

Acc

ura

tely

R

eco

gn

ized

H3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood congruent slides.

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy + + +

Sad + + +

Neutral + + +

No Load Load

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy + - -

Sad - + -

Neutral - - -

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy + + +

Sad + + +

Neutral + + +

No Load Load

Happy Slides

Sad Slides

Neutral Slides

Happy ++ - -

Sad - ++ -

Neutral - - -

H3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood congruent slides.

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.53 18.73 19.23

Sad 17.96 17.89 18.29

Neutral 18.42 18.52 18.55

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 19.35 19.52 19.52

Sad 18.80 19.00 19.25

Neutral 18.39 18.30 18.45

No Load

Load

Mean number of slides accurately recognized

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 18.53 18.73 19.23

Sad 17.96 17.89 18.29

Neutral 18.42 18.52 18.55

Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides

Happy 19.35 19.52 19.52

Sad 18.80 19.00 19.25

Neutral 18.39 18.30 18.45

No Load

Load

Mean number of slides accurately recognized

Possible Explanations and Future Directions

Ceiling EffectsNumber of SlidesTimingDistracter Activity

Emotion Eliciting Activity

For more information, please contact…

Namrata MahajanDepartment of Psychology and Social Behavior

University of California, Irvine

nmahajan@uci.edu