[The influence of an emotion on the retention of episodic scenes]

This study investigated the relationship between affective properties of stimuli and their retention. Thirty sentences describing various scenes were chosen as stimuli to elicit affects which are experienced in daily life. Ninety undergraduates rated each sentence on the following eight dimensions: anxiety, hostility, boredom, liveliness, calmness, friendliness, concentration, and surprise. One week after participating in the scene rating task, participants were given an incidental free recall test, in which they were instructed to recall a word or phrase describing each scene. Results indicated that memory for affectively pleasant scenes was superior to that for unpleasant scenes. However, a discriminant analysis on the kind of emotion activated indicated that the relaxant-tensive dimension determined the retention of the stimulus sentences more than the dimension of pleasantness.