Negative Hits Hit Different

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• Recognition memory retrieval engages the striatum, potentially due to reward associations with remembering.
• Previous research suggests memory retrieval might influence emotional valence, but the interaction with stimulus emotion is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how memory retrieval for negatively, neutrally, and positively valenced stimuli impacts subjective emotional experience.
• To determine if accurate memory for stimuli consistently increases valence ratings.

Main Methods:

• 47 healthy participants encoded negative, neutral, and positive pictures.
• Participants completed a recognition memory test (identifying old vs. new items).
• Subjective emotional valence was rated for each picture after the memory test.

Main Results:

• Neutral and positive Hits (correctly identified old items) had higher valence ratings than Correct Rejections (CRs; correctly identified new items).
• Positive False Alarms (FAs; incorrectly identified new items as old) also had higher valence ratings than CRs.
• Negative Hits elicited lower valence ratings compared to negative CRs.

Conclusions:

• The effect of memory retrieval on subjective experience is modulated by the emotional content of the stimuli.
• Accurate memory for neutral stimuli enhances valence, while accurate memory for negative stimuli reduces valence.
• Perceived oldness, regardless of accuracy, increases valence for positive stimuli.