Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2026
15:57
Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
Published on: May 4, 2011
Age differences in incidental learning of emotional information
Meital Friedman-Oskar1, Hadas Okon-Singer1, Tal Makovski2
1School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa.
Psychology and Aging
|August 10, 2026
Summary
Older adults
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience of aging
- Memory and emotion
Background:
- An age-related positivity effect shows older adults favor positive memories.
- Incidental learning of emotional stimuli is not fully understood across age groups.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in incidental learning of emotional stimuli.
- To examine how emotional valence influences memory in young and older adults within a visual statistical learning task.
Main Methods:
- Participants (young and older adults) viewed object image triplets varying in emotional valence (negative, positive, neutral).
- A visual statistical learning task assessed incidental learning of triplet structures.
- Recognition and free recall tests measured memory performance.
Main Results:
- No significant age differences in overall visual statistical learning performance were found.
- Both age groups showed a negative valence advantage in statistical learning, but not for positive stimuli.
- Older adults showed a positivity effect in free recall, preferentially remembering positive images.
Conclusions:
- The age-related positivity effect in memory does not extend to prediction-based statistical learning.
- Negative emotion effectively supports incidental learning of regularities across the lifespan.
- Emotional valence impacts memory differently depending on the cognitive task and age.
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