The Effect of Emotional Valence on Memory
Cassiday Cats
Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: College of Liberal Arts
Major: Psychology/Forensic Psychology
Faculty Research Mentor: Jane O'Brien
Abstract:
Memory refers to the process of retaining and recalling information. While information that is recalled can seem accurate, it can actually be false due to the presence of emotion. Emotion is an individual's response to an external stimulus. Emotion also includes valence and arousal. Valence is the unpleasantness or pleasantness of an emotional stimulus while arousal is the state of excitement or energy linked to an emotion. In the present study, the presence of emotionally valenced words were examined to see if it affects an individual's memory. The participants were given a list of words that included positively, negatively, and neutral valenced words. It was hypothesized that individuals would have a higher rate of recalling positively valenced words rather than negatively valenced words. The analysis of these results showed that the recall of the differently valenced words were not statistically significant. Based on these results, we may conclude that valence may not have an impact on one’s memory.