Post-encoding interference and the persistence of emotional memory encoding

Abstract

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 6/1/2023] Research on the emotional enhancement of episodic memory has largely focused on the inherent stimulus characteristics that might contribute to this effect. Less attention has been devoted to assessing the contributions of more general encoding processes that operate on both emotional and non-emotional stimuli. The current study focuses on how post-encoding elaboration contributes to the memory advantage for emotional information. Participants in an online study were presented with four categories of word stimuli to encode, based on levels of emotional valence (negative versus neutral) and arousal (high versus low). A math problem appeared after each word in attempt to terminate post-encoding elaborative processes, with the length of the delay between words and math problems (1500 versus 3500 ms) being the primary manipulation. Following a 48-hour delay, participants' memories for the words were tested using a "remember/know" procedure. We hypothesized that negative valence and high arousal would be associated with enhanced recollection-based memory performance relative to the neutral and low arousal conditions. Additionally, we predicted that the shorter word-math delay at encoding would mitigate the arousal-driven memory enhancement, consistent with several prior studies. Finally, we sought to test a novel hypothesis from a recent model of processing for emotionally-valenced stimuli (Bowen and Kensinger, 2017), in which the shorter delay was predicted to reduce the enhancement related to negative valence. The results of the current study provide partial support for these predictions (in particular, for arousal), but overall emotion-related effects were limited in size. Findings are discussed primarily in terms of potential limitations of our stimulus selection, experimental design choices, and general control of online studies of emotion and memory.