Simultaneous manipulation of emotion and working memory load distorts temporal distance memory

Although emotion and working memory load have been demonstrated to distort the perception of individual temporal durations, the impact of these factors on memories for elapsed time, in particular within the context of event sequences, remains underexplored. Much existing work on the effects of emotion and working memory load on duration processing has, moreover, examined the impact of these factors individually. Relatively limited work has explored the influence of multiple factors in combination, an important consideration given that our everyday memories are likely to be impacted by multiple factors experienced at the same time. To address these issues, the present study explored the simultaneous impact of emotion and working memory load on memory for temporal distance associated with event sequences. Participants first completed an N-back task (either 1-back or 2-back) involving the presentation of emotional images (either negative-high arousal or positive-low arousal), followed by a temporal distance rating task in which they reported how far apart different pairs of images were presented during the N-back task. Results showed that negative-high arousal images as well as low working memory load led to overestimated temporal distances compared to positive-low arousal images and high working memory load, respectively. There was relatively little evidence that these factors interact consistently, perhaps pointing towards the involvement of distinct underlying mechanisms. These findings provide novel insight into how our temporal sequence memories can be influenced and distorted by the varying levels of emotion and working memory load that we experience.