The Effects of Individualized Arousal on Recognition Memory of Words

Emotional information often modulates recognition memory, but the relative roles of arousal and valence remain debated, partly because many studies rely on normative emotion categories rather than individualized affective experience. This study examined whether post-test individualized arousal and valence ratings were associated with recognition-confidence responses to emotional Chinese words and whether the learning task influenced later recognition. Forty participants studied neutral, positive, and negative words under semantic-judgment and recognition-judgment learning conditions. After a 24 h delay, they completed a six-point old/new confidence test and then rated each final-test word for valence and arousal. Linear mixed-effects models showed that individualized arousal was more consistently associated with stronger old-response confidence than individualized valence, with a nonlinear increase at higher arousal levels. Semantic-judgment learning was followed by higher old-item confidence and hit probability than recognition-judgment learning. Descriptive signal-detection summaries indicated that valence-category effects were more evident in false-alarm rates, response criterion, and d' (sensitivity index) estimates than in the primary old-response confidence model. Because affective ratings were collected after recognition, these findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal, and they highlight the need to distinguish recognition confidence, response bias, and memory sensitivity in emotional memory research.