Emotion enhances relative but not absolute temporal memory: A meta-analysis

The extent to which emotion shapes memory for the temporal aspects of experience remains debated, with prior studies reporting conflicting results. To resolve these discrepancies, we conducted a comprehensive three-level meta-analysis of 33 studies (44 experiments, 79 effect sizes), systematically evaluating how emotion influences different forms of temporal memory-namely temporal order, temporal source, and temporal distance. Emotion selectively enhanced relative temporal memory: temporal order (Hedges's g = 0.35, 95% CI [0.11, 0.59]) and temporal source memory (g = 0.28, 95% CI [0.05, 0.51]) showed significant improvement. In contrast, no significant overall effects emerged for absolute temporal judgments (temporal distance: g = 0.06, 95% CI [-0.36, 0.49]). Moderator analyses identified that dynamic stimuli (e.g., videos) provided greater enhancement of temporal order memory than static materials, likely due to their inherent temporal structure and ecological validity. Additionally, pure lists of emotional items facilitated coherent encoding of event sequences more than mixed lists. These findings demonstrate that emotion's influence on temporal memory is selective rather than universal, with specific emotional characteristics and methodological factors critically determining the direction and magnitude of effects, thereby helping reconcile previous disparate findings. This work highlights the interplay of attentional allocation, contextual binding, and consolidation processes in shaping the mnemonic trace for "when."