PSYCH 9B Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Positron Emission Tomography
Document Summary
Well are emotional memories special or not: because we rehearse them a lot and were distinctive, doesn"t need to be special. Using positron emission tomogrpahy (pet scan) to study how emotion affects memory: participants viewed 4 types of pictures and rated them for arousal, valence, interest, pet scans during viewing, recognition test 1 month, result: Better memory for interesting pictures and emotion pictures than neutral picture. The greater activation of the amygdala, the better the memory for emotional pictures. No association between amygdala activity and memory for interesting pictures. Emotion does hot enhance memory for all information: emotional arousal enhances memory for central information. The par tof the event that matters to you: but can disrupt memory for peripheral details. How memory impairs memory: in the short run, high levels of emotional arousal or stress can impair memory by narrowing the focus of attention (e. g. , weapon focus) .
