The power of negative and positive episodic memories

Abstract

The power of episodic memories is that they bring a past moment into the present, providing opportunities for us to recall details of the experiences, reframe or update the memory, and use the retrieved information to guide our decisions. In these regards, negative and positive memories can be especially powerful: Life's highs and lows are disproportionately represented in memory, and when they are retrieved, they often impact our current mood and thoughts and influence various forms of behavior. Research rooted in neuroscience and cognitive psychology has historically focused on memory for negative emotional content. Yet the study of autobiographical memories has highlighted the importance of positive emotional memories, and more recently, cognitive neuroscience methods have begun to clarify why positive memories may show powerful relations to mental wellbeing. Here, we review the models that have been proposed to explain why emotional memories are long-lasting (durable) and likely to be retrieved (accessible), describing how in overlapping-but distinctly separable-ways, positive and negative memories can be easier to retrieve, and more likely to influence behavior. We end by identifying potential implications of this literature for broader topics related to mental wellbeing, education, and workplace environments.

Keywords: Emotional memory; Encoding; Retrieval; Valence.

© 2022. The Author(s).

Figures

Fig. 1

Power of Negative Memories. Processes that unfold during the experience of a negative event, and in the seconds, minutes, and hours that follow, can lead these memories to be durable. Emotional enhancements of memory (EEM) can occur when memory is tested after only a short delay (immediate EEM), and these enhancements can grow as the delay interval increases (delayed EEM). Processes that unfold at retrieval also can increase the likelihood that a retrieval cue brings a negative memory to mind and that the memory is subjectively vivid. Often, what is prioritized at retrieval are the negative details of an event, while the associated contextual details may not be brought to mind. Of course, the processes that unfold at each phase of memory interact with one another, and some of the selectivity of negative memories, such as the tendency for negative memories to retain some details but not others, or for the EEM to be stronger in mixed-lists than pure-lists, likely reflect the way that processes span across these phases. All figures show mock data; see text for description of related studies

Fig. 2

Models of Emotional Memory. There are multiple models of emotional memory. Many are not mutually exclusive, as they focus on different phases of memory or on different characteristics of memory

Fig. 3

Consequences of Negative and Positive Episodic Memory Retrieval. The way a past negative or positive event is brought to mind has consequences across multiple domains. These memories can influence a person’s current affective state (denoted by peach color) and the way incoming information is processed (in green). They also can be used in directive ways, to guide actions and decisions (in blue) and, particularly in the case of positive memories, their retrieval can lead to prosocial behaviors (in yellow)