At the level of psychology, there is a strong connection between emotions and memory. People actively remember all events that are saturated with bad or good emotions. Emotional content helps a person to recall events that occurred many years ago. At the same time, people can describe not only the main event, on which their feelings are focused, but the secondary details related to it. Thus, this work is focused on the hypothesis that people store unusual and experience-filled events in their memory. Moreover, it is important to note that the emotion evoked by this incident makes it easier for people to recall the details. At the same time, the influence of positive and negative feelings on the process of memorization and reproduction is different. The problem of studying the relationship between emotions and memory is important for psychology, therefore it is relevant today.
Emotion is extremely difficult to differentiate and give a unified definition. This is due to the fact that emotion is a form of mental reflection of a subjective attitude to an event or object. Feelings contain in memory and allow you to save the material that is the most emotionally colored (Głomb, 2021). At the same time, such a state and their deposition in memory instill in an individual a certain picture of the world (Niedenthal & Ric, 2017). They influence the system of interaction with the environment and the assessment of ongoing events, forming emotional memory throughout life.
Moreover, emotional gradation from positive to strongly negative emotions carries different systems for memorization. Positive emotions can be perceived by the organism as a certain reward or relief that a person experiences as a result of obtaining a good result (Głomb, 2021). However, the function of negative emotions is destructive, and it is this type of emotion that most likely affects the ability to remember. Bad emotions can be a signal that indicates that the internal holistic constancy and emotional background are violated. Such feelings affect the harmonious state of a person and a favorable course of life.
In addition, a person’s memory is built on the acquired knowledge and impressions. They affect the acquisition and application of experience throughout life (Głomb, 2021). Thus, sensations acquired as a result of any actions leave an internal trace and are fixed, and are subsequently reproduced, depending on the strength of emotions. Positive emotions can facilitate the process of memorization, however, due to the destructive influence, negative emotions are more strongly reflected in memory.
Furthermore, an important topic in the question of the influence of emotions on memory remains the initial state of the individual. This may be due to the initial neutral or emotional state of the respondent (Głomb, 2021). Moreover, the personal characteristics of a person become an extremely important criterion for emotional memory. Initially, depression can contribute to the accumulation of negative information and difficulty in remembering positive things.
In conclusion, it should be said that the process of the influence of emotions on memory is undeniable and selective. Positive and negative emotions can contribute to a stronger process of replaying the event and its details. At the same time, in this situation, it is necessary to consider the state of a person during the process of depositing the incident in memory. Emotions have the ability to accelerate and impede the processes of assimilation of information, which is determined by their connotation. In this case, we can conclude that information, the memorization of which was emotionally colored, will be deposited in the memory with a higher probability than neutral information.
References
Głomb, K. (2021). How to improve eyewitness testimony research: theoretical and methodological concerns about experiments on the impact of emotions on memory performance. Psychological research, 1-11.
Niedenthal, P. M., & Ric, F. (2017). Psychology of Emotion (2nd Edition). Taylor & Francis.