COVID-19 and Memory: A Novel Contamination Effect in Memory
Gaëtan Thiebaut1, Alain Méot2, Arnaud Witt1
1LEAD-CNRS UMR5022, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
Abstract:
The Behavioral Immune System (BIS, Schaller & Park, 2011) is a defense system whose function is to protect against pathogen exposure. Memory is an important component of this system (Fernandes et al., 2017). We investigated "contamination effects" in memory in relation to COVID-19. Photographs of everyday objects were shown to adults (N = 80) in the hands of either a healthy or a contagious person who had contracted SARS-CoV-2. "Contaminated objects" were recalled better than "non-contaminated objects" suggesting that a contamination effect in memory in humans is easily acquired in the absence of apparent visual cues of disease.
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