Journal Article

Effects of emotion-induced self-focused attention on item and source memory

Resnik, Solange N, Kim, Kyungmi, Feder, Gabriella I, Jeon, Youngbin A

2020

Overview

Affective states are closely linked to attention to internal aspects of the self (i.e., self-focused attention). We investigated how self-focused attention induced by emotional experiences affects memory for subsequently presented information. Prior to incidental encoding of affectively neutral target words, participants were induced to feel shame or anger through autobiographical recall (vs. no emotion-induction control condition). Memory for words (item memory) and their associated contextual features (source memory) were subsequently assessed. Self-focused attention, measured by the private self-consciousness scale, was highest in the shame condition, followed by the anger and then control conditions. Item memory was significantly impaired in the shame condition compared to both the anger and control conditions, and self-focused attention negatively mediated the effect of emotion condition on memory performance. Source memory did not significantly differ across the emotion conditions, and we discuss possible factors contributing to this null finding. Our findings suggest that emotion-induced self-focused attention may reduce attentional resources available for encoding task-relevant external information.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Affect (Psychology) / Anger / Attention / Consciousness / Emotional experiences / Emotions / Encoding / Focused attention / Induced / Induction / Memory / Recall / Retention / Shame / Source memory