Presenter(s): Takako Iwashita—Psychology
Faculty Mentor(s): Dasa Zeithamova, Caitlin Bowman
Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation
The ability to remember associations (e .g ., a person’s face with his/her name) is an important
aspect of healthy memory function . Emotional arousal (particularly negative emotion such as fear
or anger) is known to disrupt associative memory more than other types of memory . It is an open question if and how these adverse effects on associative memory can be reduced . In the present study, we hypothesized that repeated exposure to negative images (desensitization) would reduce their negative effects on associative memory . To test this idea, we randomly assigned subjects to either a condition where we evoked negative emotion (negative condition) or did not evoke emotion (neutral condition) during learning of object pairs . To do so, we showed subjects a negative or neutral distractor image followed by paired objects, asking them to only remember the pair of objects for a later test . We administered four study-test blocks to examine changes in memory with repeated exposure . Results revealed that subjects in the negative condition had significantly worse memory accuracy throughout the experiment compared to those in the neutral condition . Further, we found that those in the negative condition were initially numerically slower in making their responses, suggesting difficulty processing even when making a correct response . However, the difference in reaction time between conditions diminished over time . Although our evidence was mixed, these results imply that desensitization to negative stimuli could reduce some effects of negative emotions on associative memory . This suggests a possible role of desensitization in alleviating memory disruption caused by trauma .