Emotions Memory and Freud

Emotions and Memory

Emotions, memory, and Freud

Emotion and memory

Describe how emotion influences memory for details and how non-emotional events are remembered.

Emotion can have a measurable impact on what and how different environmental stimuli are recorded in one's memory. Because emotional arousal facilitates storage -- "neuroimaging studies demonstrate amygdala activation during the encoding of emotionally laden stimuli" -- memory recall is enhanced "for information presented in a (negatively) emotional context" (Anderson & Shimamura 2005: 323). However, there is also contradictory evidence to this supposition given "studies of eyewitness memory and psychological trauma suggest reduced or distorted memory under emotional stress" (Anderson & Shimamura 2005: 324). This paradox is partially explained by the fact that because "emotional events produce a narrowing of attentional focus for emotional stimulus" -- the brain tends to focus on only one thing and thus can create a distorted memory (Anderson & Shimamura 2005: 324). In contrast, non-emotional events are recorded less vividly, buy also more holistically.

Q2. There has been a great deal of controversy on whether Freud's theory of repressed memory is even possible. That is, in many laboratory studies the phenomenon of repressed memory cannot be seen. Why would that be the case?

The Freudian notion of repressed memory is that traumatic recollections are stored in the unconscious, against the will of the individual. However, researchers who have attempted to find evidence in history of "dissociative amnesia in works prior to 1800" find no evidence of the phenomena (Pettus 2008). Thus "indicates that the phenomenon is not a natural neurological function, but rather a 'culture-bound' syndrome rooted in the nineteenth century" (Pettus 2008). In other words, the Freudian presumption that the phenomenon existed actually created the perception that the condition exists, rather than vice versa.

However, just as it is difficult to prove that repressed memories exist, it is just as difficult to prove that they do not exist. Repressed memories can theoretically spontaneously surface at any time, and studying repressed memories within a laboratory context during a fixed time period for an experiment would be impossible. There have been studies indicating that eyewitness testimony and some types of memory recollection are unreliable, but entirely repressed memories that are 'blacked out' and then spontaneously re-surface have not been able to be simulated under experimental conditions.

Q3. Imagine as a future professor how you might be able to help students remember important parts of your lectures.