Autonomic (rather than cortical) arousal account of the word-arousal memory effect¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article proposes that the emotionally engendered by words affects retention through autonomic rather than cortical arousal. Because the neural consolidation predictions failed, the author concludes that "the facilitation of recall by word-arousal in this study is a function of autonomic rather than cortical arousal." Supporting this, rated word-arousal correlated (r=.37) with Neuroticism but not with Extraversion, a known correlate of cortical arousal, so emotional arousal from words can aid memory without producing cortical arousal sufficient to inhibit memory.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Word lists must be matched on imagery and frequency so arousal is the differing attribute

Constraints¶

• The account is offered as an interpretation of this study's null serial-position results; the author notes consolidation theory could be rescued by assuming the lists represented low and moderate arousal levels on an inverted-U function

Target Learners¶

• adult learners in verbal memory experiments

Target Learning Objectives¶

• verbal free recall and retention of emotionally toned material

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Information Processing Theory

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Osborne, John W. (1974). Free Recall of Differentially Arousing Words. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED088021