A study of negative emotional stimuli and memory : Use of a central and incidental learning task

Abstract

Two free recall experiments were performed with four emotional conditions. The subjects were given a central and incidental learning task with twenty pairs of emotional words. During the task the subjects studied one word of each pair with their attention focused (central learning) and the other with their attention divided (incidental learning). The central stimuli were underlined. The four conditions were manipulated by the type of emotional word pairs (negative-negative, negative-neutral, neutral-negative, neutral-neutral). During the incidental learning, the recall performance of the subjects was better with negative stimuli than with neutral stimuli. However, during central learning, a difference in their recall performance with these two types of stimuli was not observed. It is suggested that the facilitative effect on memory which was observed in the negative stimulus condition could be related to incidental and automatic attention, but not to selective and conscious attention.