Negative Autobiographical Memories: Fading Affect Bias?

O’Brien describes that memories can affect one’s emotions in a detrimental way over time. Reflecting on memories that one felt affected them negatively can be bad for the mind and cause them emotional turmoil. O’Brien describes a “hard story to tell (O’Brien 172).” “For more than twenty years,” O’Brien, “had to live with...the shame.” O’Brien had been “trying to push (the memory) away,” The event O’Brien reminisces on

Since I was young, I have always had an affinity of people watching, and trying to figure out what type of life they lived. Especially, what type of events would cause people to adopt a positive (happy) outlook in comparison to people that dwell on the negatives attributes? Growing up, my mother had a peculiar thought process that would always managed to lead to negative (not happy) thoughts. In the beginning, I too would follow similar thought process, but I quickly realized how exhausting it was to maintain. Before reading Shawn Achor’s book, I wanted to clear my mental database and allow for this new information to be absorbed into my life.

Our emotions in many cases affect our perception of events as well as the actions that we take ourselves by permeating our way of thinking, and therefore affecting each thing that we do in that moment. In particular, emotions about the perception of ourselves have been shown to have both the ability to positively and negatively affect our actions and performances in life. This is what can be

When individuals have previously experienced a saddening, painful past, their desire to retain these past memories allows them to temporarily stay away from the hurtful reality. Their preservation of former events deludes their consciousness as they are unwilling to confront reality and wish to permanently live in a seemingly happy, satisfying illusion. In The Underpainter, Jane Urquhart suggests that when individuals are unwilling to move on from the past, their desire to maintain their past memories causes them to create a long-term irrational illusion since the reality they are currently living strongly contravenes with their illusion. As a result of their unwillingness to embrace with reality, others who unexpectedly are able to perceive

In our later years, it appears that emotions are processed in a more positive way. For example,

Bohlmeijer, E. T., Westerhof, G. J., & Emmerik-de Jong, M. (2008). The effects of integrative reminiscence on meaning in life: Results of a quasi-experimental study. Aging and Mental Health, 12(5), 639-646.

The sudden recovery of repressed memories from a traumatic event such as childhood sexual abuse can be both validating and confusing for clients that are seeking help with various problems. These new memories might be able to help client identify the cause of their feelings and issues that are affecting their life. However for others it can be a very difficult time because of the conflicting emotions about the abuser. Worst of all when dealing with the recovery of repressed memories they may be all together false. The accuracy of recovered memories in regards to sexual abuse is low and can come with significant consequences. These false memories can be very harmful to the client as

Have you every specifically remembered an event such as going to a basketball game then you were reminded by someone that you didn’t go because you were sick or something. If so, you have created a false memory. The study of false memories began in the early 1990’s when people started to report “recovered” memories of abuse (Laney & Loftus 1). To understand how false memories work, you first need a basic understanding of how the memory works. In general your brain stores memories in different ways depending on what type of memory they are. For example short term memories are most often stored in acoustic form but long term memories are stored by their meanings (Foster 3). Because of this, long term memories

Affect influences many areas of cognition and has a large impact on memory (Robinson, Watkins, & Harmon-Jones, 2013; Packard, Cahill, & McGaugh, 1994). It has been shown that extreme emotional stress can impair memory, while moderate levels of emotional stress can improve learning and memory (Packard et al., 1994). In humans, emotional content is remembered better than non-emotional content and is richer in details (Choi, Kensinger, & Rajaram, 2013). However, it is not totally clear how emotion influences false memories. Past research has examined the effect of emotion on false memories and has reported mixed findings where emotional intensity has increased and decreased false memory (Choi et al., 2013). Storbeck and Clore (2005) found definite results showing that negative emotional affect reduces false memories in adults. The goal of this research is to investigate how positive and negative affective states influence false memory in children and the effect of emotional regulation strategies on memory formation.

Do you think an experience can be so traumatizing that the brain pushes it into an inaccessible corner of the unconscious to later recall it years later? This concept on the mind is expressed as repressed memories. These are types of memories that are blocked unconsciously due to the high levels of stress experienced during the event. This theory on memories are based on the idea that even though the memory is repressed it is still affecting the individual in their conscious aspects of life. Repressed memories are often associated with childhood sexual abuse. This relies on the idea that these memories of sexual abuse can be brought up either in therapy or by the victim themselves years after the abuse. The concept of repressed memories has been a huge controversy in psychology from the beginning of time. Many people believe that repressed memories in regards to childhood sexual abuse are possible while others believe they can’t be as accurate as some people believe.

Fayard, J. V., Roberts, B. W., Robins, R. W., & Watson, D. (2012). Uncovering the Affective

I'm leaning more to instincts rather than inherit memories. It is true that it is our innate that we should fear snakes. I am scared of pretty much everything that's not human, but my mother and father are not. So I'm still not convince that it is our inherit memories that I learn to fear pretty much

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” These words from Dr.Seuss still stand true, and are something I can relate to. I believe that you should always show your love and appreciation to your family members for what they do for you. Before my sister left for college, I didn’t realize how much I appreciated her and loved her for all the things she did for me.

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

Recollections of vivid autobiographical episodic memories formed when an individual experiences intense emotions, generating from a surprising public event defines Flashbulb memories (FBMs). Permanent and consistent remembrances processed cognitively and stored as explicit recollections in long term memory are additional features of FBMs (Goldstein, 2014). Brown & Kulik (1977) first proposed this phenomenon and argued FBMs are resistant to change like photographs. The ongoing debate over the process of cognition in relation to storing and recalling FBMs led numerous researchers to advance their understanding of the mental processing of FBMs and to evaluate the impact emotions have on memories. This paper discusses the pioneer investigation and findings from Brown & Kulik’s 1977. It further explores debates opposing their unique theory of FBMs and the apparent inadequacies of their conclusions. Additionally, this paper examines plausible hypotheses from researchers for the formation of FBMs like rehearsal of events and the inconsistencies of FBMs, their distortions and the decay FBMs experience over time. It then evaluates a contemporary study on FBMs and the necessity for future studies to develop a method to measure FBMs. This is imperative in order to gain a deeper understanding of the influences emotions have on shaping, processing and storing FBMs cognitively and consequently how it impacts on our daily lives.