The moderating effects of stimulus valence and arousal on memory suppression.

Full Abstract

This study examined the separate and combined effects of stimulus valence and arousal on retrieval inhibition. Participants performed Anderson and Green's (2001) memory suppression task with stimuli varying across dimensions of valence and arousal. Memory was tested through free and cued recall as well as speeded recognition. Results showed that both stimulus valence and arousal influenced the extent to which participants successfully inhibited retrieval, but not in the ways anticipated. Specifically, the strongest inhibition effects were for highly arousing, pleasant words. In addition, unpleasant stimuli that were suppressed were better recalled during both cued and free-recall tasks than pleasant stimuli that were suppressed. Across all tests of memory performance, there were no significant differences between the experimental conditions for highly arousing, unpleasant words. The implications of these findings are discussed.(Copyright) 2008 APA.

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Author information

Author/s: Marx, Brian P (BP); Marshall, Peter J (PJ); Castro, Frank (F);

Affiliation: VA Boston Healthcare System, National Center for PTSD (116B-2), 150 South Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02130, USA. brian.marx(-atsign-)va.gov

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) (Emotion), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 8 (issue 2) : pp 199-207

Dates: Created 2008/04/15; Completed 2008/08/22;

PMID: 18410194, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Arousal
Attention
Cues
Emotions
Female
Humans

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