Remembering Can Cause Forgetting – but Not in
Negative MoodsPsychological Science – 2007
Karl-Heinz Bauml and Christof KuhbandnerPresented byTachelle Nettles
Fall 2010
Article Definitions
Affective states – positive or negative emotions/moods
Retrieval induced forgetting – forgetting that is caused by the retrieval process itself
Item-specific processing–processing events by their details
Relational processing –processing events in relation to other concepts in memory
Background
Goal: To investigate how affective states might influence retrieval-induced forgetting
Question: Does the affective state experienced during retrieval influence forgetting independent of the contents to be retrieved?
Prior Findings
“Repeated retrieval of a subset of previously observed events can cause later forgetting of non-retrieved events”
Emotions can influence how info is processed◦Positive emotions result in relational-processing
◦Negative emotions result in item-specific processing
Assumptions
Mood may affect retrieval-induced forgetting
During retrieval of to-be-practiced items only related items should interfere and be inhibited to reduce interference
Positive and negative moods may have opposing effects on retrieval-induced forgetting: enhancing in one case and reducing in the other
Summary of Study
Volunteers asked to study episodic material Immediately before retrieval a mood was
induced and then volunteers were asked to retrieve a subset of the material
Researchers examined whether mood affected later recall of the nonretrieved material.
Subjects
27 Students at Regensburg University, Germany tested individually
Materials
6 Word Lists◦Each contained items from 3 semantic
categories◦6 emotionally neutral words◦Initial letter of each word was unique
10 Positive, 10 Negative, 10 Neutral pictures◦People with diseases and mutilated bodies
(negative)◦Erotic Scenes and babies (positive)◦Scenery and objects (neutral)
Design (1 of 3)
3 x 3 design – mood and word type
Practiced (P+) Unpracticed (P-) Control (C)
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Negative
• Word list: (4 Phases)• Word list: (4 Phases)
Positive
• Word list: (4 Phases)• Word list: (4 Phases)
Neutral
• Word list: (4 Phases)• Word list: (4 Phases)
Design Continued (2 of 3)
For each single list the experiment consisted of 4 main phases◦Study Phase◦Mood-Induction Phase◦Retrieval-Practice Phase◦Final Test Phase
For each of the 6 lists in the, subjects attempted to retrieve half of the items from 2 of 3 categories
Design Continued (3 of 3)
3 types of words created◦Retrieval practiced (P+ words)◦Unpracticed words belonging to same 2 categories as P+ words (P- words)
◦Unpracticed words from unpracticed category, serves as control words (C words)
Fruit (P+)• Apple• Orange
Fruit (P-)• Banana• Plum
Drinks (C)• Vodka• Rum
Procedure (1 of 2)
Study Phase◦Each word on list displayed on computer screen for 5s with category name
◦Random sequence of 6 blocks◦30-s distracter task before next phase
Mood-Induction Phase◦Subjects successively shown 5 pictures of the same valence and told to let it influence their emotional state (6-secs each)
Procedure Continued (2 of 2)
Retrieval-Practice Phase◦Word stem of P+ presented with category name
and asked to complete with a studied word◦Presented twice at 2.5 s per stem◦Mood measured ◦3-min distracter
Final Test Phase◦Subjects given 1st letter of studied word with
category and asked to name appropriate word Fruit: A____
◦30 sec break between study phase of next list
Results
Manipulation CheckRetrieval-Practice Phase
Final Recall Test
Manipulation Check Results
Across conditions, subjects varied reliably in mood
Arousal between positive and neutral conditions differed reliably from arousal in negative condition
Retrieval-Practice Phase Results
PositiveNegative
Neutral
74
76
78
80
82
84
86 85.2
82.3
79
Mean
% o
f P
+ W
ord
s
Retrieval success in retrieval-practice phase was high and did not vary reliably across mood conditions
Final Recall Test Results
Retrieval practice enhanced later recall of P+ words
In positive and neutral mood conditions performance was lower for the P- words than the C words
In the negative mood condition recall of P- words was slightly higher than recall of C words
Amount of forgetting differed reliably between the positive and negative mood conditions
Final Recall Test Results
Discussion
Affect can influence retrieval-induced forgetting
When negative affect was experienced in retrieval-practice phase it did not cause forgetting of non-retrieved words from practice category
Reliable forgetting found in subjects who experienced positive and neutral moods
Results consistent with recent findings indicating that negative emotions induce predominately item-specific processing
Discussion Continued
Results show a tendency for more forgetting in the positive-mood than in the neutral-mood condition (not significant difference)
Results primarily demonstrate the influence of negative moods on retrieval-induced forgetting, indicating that a change from the (default) relational mode to an item-specific mode of retrieval can eliminate the forgetting.
Results suggest that mood may influence eyewitness testimony.
Questions?
Thoughts?
Questions?
Article Citation
Kuhbandner, C. (2007). Remembering Can Cause Forgetting-but Not in Negative Moods. Psychological Science, 18(2), 111-115.