Instruction to forget leads [corrected] to emotional devaluation.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The relationship between emotion and memory is well-established, with emotions often enhancing memory recall.
• However, the influence of memory processes on emotional experiences remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the bidirectional interaction between emotion and memory.
• To determine if intentional forgetting influences subsequent emotional evaluation of to-be-forgotten items.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments utilized an item-method directed forgetting paradigm combined with an emotional evaluation task.
• Instructions were manipulated to associate positive affect with the forget condition to test response bias.

Main Results:

• Intentionally forgotten words and faces were subsequently emotionally devalued compared to items intended for remembrance.
• This devaluation effect was memory-specific and replicated across different stimuli types.

Conclusions:

• Intentional forgetting influences emotional processing, leading to devaluation of forgotten items.
• Findings generalize the Distractor Devaluation effect from attention to memory, highlighting memory's impact on emotion.