Transcript Sarah Roper Coleman - School of Social Ecology

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, UCI
Mentor
 Dr. Valerie Jenness, UCI
Honors Seminar
Instructor
 Research Assistants:
Tiffany Fan, UCI
Allyson 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
Studies show that emotionally charged
events are remembered better than ordinary,
neutral events (e.g. Christianson, 1992).
 Mood Congruent Theory- We remember
events that match our current mood.
Memory & Cognitive Load
• Cognitive Load- The “total amount of mental
activity imposed on working-memory at an
instance in time” (Cooper, 1998).
Working-Memory  Long-Term Memory
- Excessive cognitive loads affect
memory and make learning more
difficult.
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 moodcongruent information.
Methods
Methods
1. 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.
5.
6.
Distracter Activity
Recognition Task
Debriefing
Happy
Sad
Neutral
X
X
X
Methods
1. 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.
5.
6.
Distracter Activity
Recognition Task
Debriefing
Happy
Sad
Neutral
No Load
X
X
X
Load
X
X
X
Happy
Sad
Neutral
Methods
1. 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 Activity
5.
6.
Recognition Task
Debriefing
Distracter Activity (Anagrams)
Nerd Amid Late TV
David Letterman
Retypes Brains
Britney Spears
Old West Action
Clint Eastwood
He Can Mock Jails
Michael Jackson
Methods
1. 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 Activity
5. Recognition Task
6.
Debriefing
Methods
1. 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.
5.
Distracter Activity
Recognition Task
6. Debriefing
Results
Participants - Gender
32%
Women
Men
68%
N=200
Participants - Ethnicity
2%
Asian
13%
Black
5%
Hispanic
53%
Native Hawaiian
Non-Hispanic
White
Biracial
19%
8%
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.
No Load
Happy
Slides
Happy
Sad
Neutral
+
+
+
Sad
Slides
+
+
+
Load
Happy
Slides
Sad
Slides
Neutral
Slides
Happy
-
-
-
Sad
-
-
-
Neutral
-
-
-
Neutral
Slides
+
+
+
Mean number of slides accurately
recognized
No
Load
Load
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
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
Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized
Mean Number of Slides
Accurately Recognized
18.8
18.6
18.4
18.2
No Load
Cognitive Load
Load
Although not
significant, there
is a trend for
participants
without
cognitive load to
have higher
accuracy rates
than
participants
with cognitive
load.
H3 : Participants under both
an emotional condition and
cognitive load will remember
more mood congruent slides.
No Load
Load
Happy
Slides
Sad
Slides
Neutral
Slides
Happy
+
+
+
Sad
+
+
Neutral
+
+
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.
No Load
Load
Happy
Slides
Sad
Slides
Neutral
Slides
Happy
+
+
+
Happy
Sad
+
+
+
Neutral
+
+
+
Happy
Slides
Sad
Slides
Neutral
Slides
++
-
-
Sad
-
++
-
Neutral
-
-
-
Mean number of slides accurately
recognized
No
Load
Load
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
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
Mean number of slides accurately
recognized
No
Load
Load
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
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
Possible Explanations
and Future Directions
 Ceiling Effects
Number of Slides
Timing
Distracter Activity
 Emotion Eliciting Activity
For more information, please
contact…
Namrata Mahajan
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior
University of California, Irvine
[email protected]