Effects of emotion on item memory and spatial source memory

摘要

This study examines effects of emotion on item memory and spatial source memory. During learning, neutral, positive and negative words were randomly presented on either the left or right side of a computer screen, and participants were asked to memorize each word and its location on the screen. Immediately after learning, participants first conducted free recall, and then took tests for recognition and spatial source memory. The results are as follows: 1) Recall for both positive and negative words were better than for neutral words. 2) No significant difference was found between recognition for neutral, positive and negative words. 3) For females, spatial source memory for positive words was better than for neutral words; however, no significant difference existed between negative and neutral words. For males, no significant difference existed between neutral, positive and negative words. Therefore, the effect of emotion on item memory depends on the task of memory test, and the effect of emotion on spatial source memory may be modulated by gender. The findings have implications for establishing a theoretical model concerning the effect of emotion on memory.