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Effects of Emotion on Memory Specificity in Young and Older Adults

¹ Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Address correspondence to Elizabeth A. Kensinger, PhD, McGuinn Hall, Room 510, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. E-mail: elizabeth.kensinger{at}bc.edu

To examine how emotional content affects the amount of visual detail remembered, we had young and older adults study neutral, negative, and positive objects. At retrieval, they distinguished same (identical) from similar (same verbal label, different visual details) and new (nonstudied) objects. A same response to a same item indicated memory for visual details (specific recognition), whereas a same or similar response to a same or similar item signified memory for the general sort of object (general recognition). Both age groups showed enhanced specific recognition for negative (not positive) objects. Young adults' general recognition advantage also was restricted to negative objects, whereas older adults showed enhanced general recognition for positive and negative objects. Negative (not positive) content enhanced the visual specificity of memory in both ages, but positive content conferred a general memory advantage only for older adults.