Abstract

This article describes an experiment that was conducted in order to determine the effectiveness of emotions as retrieval cues. Whenever someone is in the same state of consciousness while encoding and retrieving an experience or information, the person is able to recall a greater amount of information; this phenomenon is called state dependent memory. For this study the state of consciousness used was emotional state. The participant was shown a video that induced either positive or negative emotions during the encoding process followed by a study material for participants to read. Once again the participant was induced with a positive or negative emotion through another video during the retrieval process, and then was provided with a memory test about the study material. It was hypothesized that the group of participants who experienced the same emotion in the encoding and retrieval processes will do better in the memory test than the group of participant who experienced different emotions during the encoding and retrieval processes. The videos were effective in inducing the desired emotional state; however, analysis of the results showed no significant difference between the two groups.

Recommended Citation

Linero, Mauri (2016) "Effectiveness of Emotions as Retrieval Cues," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 19, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol1/iss19/3