Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 15, 2026

A Real-world What-Where-When Memory Test
Published on: May 16, 2017
The slow forgetting of emotional episodic memories: an emotional binding account
Andrew P Yonelinas1, Maureen Ritchey2
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA.
Abstract:
Emotional events are remembered better than neutral events, and this emotion advantage becomes particularly pronounced over time. The time-dependent effects of emotion impact upon recollection rather than on familiarity-based recognition, and they influence the recollection of item-specific details rather than contextual details. Moreover, the amygdala, but not the hippocampus, is crucial for producing these effects. Time-dependent effects of emotion have been attributed to an emotional consolidation process whereby the amygdala gradually facilitates the storage of emotional memories by other medial temporal lobe regions. However, we propose that these effects can be better understood by an emotional binding account whereby the amygdala mediates the recollection of item-emotion bindings that are forgotten more slowly than item-context bindings supported by the hippocampus.
Related Concept Videos
Repressed Memory
Forgetting
Encoding...
Explicit Memories
Episodic memory contains information about personally experienced events and is reported as a story. An example of episodic memory is recalling a birthday celebration. This type of memory includes the what, where, and when of an event, as...
Autobiographical Memory
Traumatic Memory
Flashbulb Memory

