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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
Published on: May 4, 2011
The role of attention and relatedness in emotionally enhanced memory
Deborah Talmi1, Ulrich Schimmack, Theone Paterson
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. d.talmi@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
Abstract:
Examining the positive and negative pictures separately revealed that emotionally enhanced memory (EEM) for positive pictures was mediated by attention, with no significant influence of emotional arousal, whereas the reverse was true of negative pictures. Consistent with this finding, in Experiment 2 EEM for negative pictures was found even when task emphasis was manipulated so that equivalent attention was allocated to negative and neutral pictures. The results show that attention and semantic relatedness contribute to EEM, with the extent varying with emotional valence. Negative emotion can influence memory independently of these 2 factors.
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