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Effects of Emotions and Cognitive Load on Memory Presented at the University of California, Irvine by Namrata Mahajan May 14, 2005
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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)
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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
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What is Memory? Memory is the ability to use or to remember information that was previously encoded or processed (Ericsson & Chase, 1982).
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Memory and Emotions Mood Congruent Theory- We remember events that match our current mood. Studies show that emotionally charged events are remembered better than ordinary, neutral events (e.g. Christianson, 1992).
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Memory & Cognitive Load Cognitive Load- The “total amount of mental activity imposed on working-memory at an instance in time” (Cooper, 1998). - Excessive cognitive loads affect memory and make learning more difficult. Working-Memory Long-Term Memory
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Hypotheses H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent better than mood-incongruent information. H 2 : Participants without cognitive load will remember information better than those with cognitive load. H 3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood- congruent information.
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Methods
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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
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HappySadNeutral XXX
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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
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HappySadNeutral XXX No Load Load XXX
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Happy
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Sad
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Neutral
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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
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Distracter Activity (Anagrams) Nerd Amid Late TV Retypes Brains Old West Action He Can Mock Jails David Letterman Britney Spears Clint Eastwood Michael Jackson
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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
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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. Distracter Activity 5. Recognition Task 6. Debriefing
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Results
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Participants - Gender N=200
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Participants - Ethnicity
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H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides. Happy Slides Sad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy+-- Sad-+- Neutral--+
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H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides. Happy Slides Sad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy+-- Sad-+- Neutral--+
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Method Each participant given score out of a possible 20 20 = no false positives and no mistakes
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H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides. Happy Slides Sad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy18.95119.13119.377 Sad18.44418.52418.841 Neutral18.406 18.500
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H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides. Happy Slides Sad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy18.95119.13119.377 Sad18.44418.52418.841 Neutral18.406 18.500
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H 1 : Participants will remember mood-congruent slides better than mood-incongruent slides. Happy Slides Sad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy18.95119.13119.377 Sad18.44418.52418.841 Neutral18.406 18.500
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Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized
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H 2 : Participants without cognitive load will remember slides better than those with cognitive load. Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy+++ Sad+++ Neutral+++ Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy--- Sad--- Neutral--- No LoadLoad
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Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 18.5318.7319.23 Sad 17.9617.8918.29 Neutral 18.4218.5218.55 Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 19.3519.52 Sad 18.8019.0019.25 Neutral 18.3918.3018.45 No Load Load Mean number of slides accurately recognized
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Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized Although not significant, there is a trend for participants without cognitive load to have higher accuracy rates than participants with cognitive load. Cognitive Load Mean Number of Slides Accurately Recognized
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H 3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood congruent slides. Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy+++ Sad+++ Neutral+++ No LoadLoad Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy+-- Sad-+- Neutral---
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Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy+++ Sad+++ Neutral+++ No LoadLoad Happy Slides Sad Slides Neutral Slides Happy++-- Sad-++- Neutral--- H 3 : Participants under both an emotional condition and cognitive load will remember more mood congruent slides.
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Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 18.5318.7319.23 Sad 17.9617.8918.29 Neutral 18.4218.5218.55 Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 19.3519.52 Sad 18.8019.0019.25 Neutral 18.3918.3018.45 No Load Load Mean number of slides accurately recognized
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Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 18.5318.7319.23 Sad 17.9617.8918.29 Neutral 18.4218.5218.55 Happy SlidesSad SlidesNeutral Slides Happy 19.3519.52 Sad 18.8019.0019.25 Neutral 18.3918.3018.45 No Load Load Mean number of slides accurately recognized
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Possible Explanations and Future Directions Ceiling Effects Number of Slides Timing Distracter Activity Emotion Eliciting Activity
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For more information, please contact… Namrata Mahajan Department of Psychology and Social Behavior University of California, Irvine nmahajan@uci.edu
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