How Does Emotion Help Us Remember?

From the study conducted by Ferri et al., there was a slight statistical significance between amygdala activation to neutral and fearful faces in regards to anxiety levels. On the contrary, they did not find a significant difference. This could be due to the girls being unable to predict the

Cognitive development is important in the field of Child development because it helps us understand behavior. Of particular importance in this paper in this paper is memory and how it affects behavior. We will explore short-term memory and how it is associated to retrograde amnesia. We will also explore how emotions affect memory by either enhancing it. We will then explore how these concepts apply by putting them in the context of real life. In particular, the paper will discuss how the film Finding Dory has employed the concept of memory in its plot. The argument supported here is that emotions boost memory.

The amygdala evaluates socially and emotionally relevant information in response to facial stimuli. The amygdala is involved in

Amid this study, they were demonstrated an institutionalized list of photographs that dependably trigger feelings in human brains, utilizing video glasses. At the point when the subjects respected the genuine, negative pictures, there was significantly expanded action in their amygdalas. This locale of the cerebrum is emphatically included in handling negative feelings.

The two brain structures that are most frequently linked to human emotion are the amygdalas and the medial portions of the prefrontal lobes (Pinel, 2014). The amygdalas are only one section of the limbic system, it is the “almond-shaped nucleus in the anterior temporal lobe” (Pinel, 2014, pg. 70). The amygdalas have been researched more than any other section of the limbic system. The amygdalas are most commonly associated with the emotion of fear, however research is showing that the amygdalas actually play a role in “evaluating the emotional significance of situations”, whether the emotions being felt are positive or negative (Pinel, 2014, pg. 436). Even though research has shown the amygdalas play a larger role with emotions, brain imaging

Amygdala, prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and hypothalamus are the main four brain regions involved in how we experience emotions (Feist et al., 2015). One way to explain emotions is to describe them as adaptations to the problems that our ancestors experienced. This model explains emotions as evolutionary adaptations (Feist et al., 2015). In this model, emotions affect physiological systems in ways to help us “deal efficiently with critical situations” (Feist et al., 2015). For example, when we sense danger, our circulatory system, respiratory system, and muscles work harder to help us escape from the danger. In this case, a set of adaptations is associated with a certain emotion (i.e. fear) and thus, emotions can be explained as evolutionary adaptations, allowing us to cope with the

In his 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman writes of an experiment in which two images – one of wide excited eyes and one of calmer narrow eyes – were shown to subjects in a brain scanner. Though both images were digitally obstructed and shown for less than a second, subjects showed much more excitement in their brain scans when the unsettling wide eyes were shown. More specifically, the scans showed increased activity in the amygdala, the so-called “threat center” of the brain. Kahneman (2011) sums up the experiment by stating that in the brain, negative things are given greater priority over positive things.

During the discussion on memory, we deliberated on the difference between emotional, procedural and episodic memory, the correlation between identity and humanity, the perception of time, and the ability of self-realization. Firstly, we explicated the emotional aspect of Clive Wearing’s severe case of amnesia, but also realized his love for Deborah (his wife) and music were bittersweet. His raw emotional memory was left untouched, whereas his episodic memory was severely affected. Furthermore, we examined the parallels between identity and humanity. Some believed that being human means to display emotions, whereas others affirmed that emotions require episodic memory. Moreover, we concluded that memory is inherently altered through repetition.

A Positron Emission Tomography study was conducted in order to compare the differing levels of activity of the amygdala in females and males. The study showed that males typically have higher levels of activity. The amygdala regulates emotions and is located in the lower part of the limbic system (Beaver, 2009).

The importance of the amygdala in social cognitions has been examined in both primate and human studies. Use of primates to study the social brain suggests that the amygdala contributes to social cognition. Kluver and Bucy made large bilateral lesions in monkey brains made across the amygdala, temporal neocortex, and surrounding structure. After the lesion, the animals engaged in hypersexual behaviors, unusual tameness, and a lack of knowledge about emotional stimuli. Lesions exclusively targeting the monkey’s amygdala resulted in similar, but more subtle impairments. This suggest that the amygdala may play a role in emotions elicited by social cues. Studies of the amygdala’s role in human social cognition suggest that the temporal lobes process socially relevant facial information from humans. Emotions from facial expressions, in particular fear are projected to the amygdala. Studies using FMRI to examine typical subjects and subjects with amygdala damage support this theory. Individuals with amygdala damage have difficulty recognizing facial expressions, specifically negative emotions such as fear.

The cognitive level of analysis evaluates and studies the mental structures and processes involved in behaviors. For example, memory or perception. These various behaviors are knows as cognitive processes. We will evaluate what role emotion plays in a specific cognitive process and how it could possibly affect and influence them. In this essay, we will investigate how emotion can affect memory in reference the the “Flashbulb Memory” theory of Brown and Kulik that was done in 1977. This theory and many others were developed after Freud’s hypothesis that only therapy can resurface disturbing memories that create painful emotions. Another example of a study that was done based off of Freud’s theory is the Levinger and Clark study in 1961.

The Emotional Working Memory Task (EWMT) was a validated modified Sternberg item recognition task that was used to measure distractibility by emotional social cues. The present version (Krause-Utz et al., 2012) consisted of 120 trials, each starting with a set of 3 uppercase letters (memoranda, 1000 ms), followed by a delay interval (1500 ms) and a probe (3 uppercase letters, 2000 ms). In half of the trials, 1 of the 3 memoranda was present in the probe. Participants pressed a ‘yes’ button to indicate that they had recognize a target letter, or ‘no’ button to indicate that they a target letter was not present (Krause-Utz et al., 2014a). During the delay interval, either neutral or angry or fearful female faces from the Karolinska Directed Emotional

The two main emotional factors that influence memory and forgetting are flashbulb and repression. A flashbulb memory is a memory that has a high emotional significance they are accurate and long lasting. It is almost a photographic memory of a particularly emotional event that is imprinted on your mind. For example an event such as September the 11th, people can remember things such as how they heard it happened, what clothes they were wearing and who they were with very clearly. This is because it was such a sudden emotional impact when they heard it that it got imprinted in their memory. Repression is an emotional factor in forgetting. It is that we forget because we have great anxiety about certain memories. This is because certain

In the next paragraphs I will consider some theories, factors and evidence on cognitive controlling of emotion in terms of

Some view emotions as problem-solving abilities allowing us to be ready for action, and thereby not getting lost in thought when action is required (Frijda 1986). Therefore, our emotions would allow problem solving by focusing attention on aspects of a situation that matter most. By doing this, emotions provide the readiness for action. Could this possibly explain our different temperaments during different situations? When presented in an alarming situation, we notice changes that influence our actions. We suddenly redirect our attention to that situation of interest. This has been referred to as the focus of our attention from a summary of appraisals, to arrive