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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition
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Directed forgetting of emotionally valenced faces.

Barry Corenblum1, Phillip N Goernert1, Nicholas N Watier1

  • 1Brandon University, Canada.

Acta Psychologica
|April 25, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Happy faces enhance directed forgetting by acting as "go signals," while sad faces do not. Mood state did not impact this memory effect, suggesting facial cues are key.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Affective Science
  • Memory Research

Background:

  • The affect-as-cognitive-feedback hypothesis suggests emotional stimuli influence cognitive processes.
  • Directed forgetting tasks investigate how intentions to remember or forget impact memory recall.
  • Facial expressions convey emotional valence, potentially modulating cognitive control.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the influence of facial valence (happy, neutral, sad) on directed forgetting.
  • To test whether induced mood states interact with facial valence cues in directed forgetting.
  • To investigate the validity of the affect-as-cognitive-feedback hypothesis in a directed forgetting paradigm.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized an item-method directed forgetting task across three experiments.
Keywords:
Directed forgettingEmotional valenceFacial emotionsMoodRecognition

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  • Participants viewed photographs of happy, neutral, and sad faces under induced mood conditions.
  • Memory judgments (remember, forget, new) were collected for presented and new faces.

    • Main Results:

    • Directed forgetting effects were observed for happy faces (Experiments 1 & 3) and neutral faces (Experiment 2).
    • No significant directed forgetting effect was found for sad faces.
    • Induced mood states did not influence directed forgetting performance across any experiment.

    Conclusions:

    • Facial valence cues, particularly positive ones, facilitate directed forgetting by acting as 'go signals'.
    • Negative facial valence may inhibit or reverse cognitive control, hindering directed forgetting.
    • Mood state does not appear to be a critical factor in facial valence-modulated directed forgetting.