We remember highly emotional, moving and intense events better than mundane ones; emotions are a state of mind. Significantly stressful and major events can either help us to remember certain events or help us to forget. Numerous studies have reported that human cognitive processes are affected by emotions, including attention (Vuilleumier, 2005), learning and memory (Phelps, 2004)(Tyng, Amin, Saad, Malik, 2007, pg.1). Tests, homework and term papers are all associated with different emotions that embody joy, anxiety, fear and frustration. Even the particular classes that one takes evokes emotional responses and can affect how we learn and our memory (Tyng, Amin, Saad, Malik, 2017).
The three emotions that we decided study were: fear, joy, and awe. The current literature says that fear’s effect on STM, that fear can securely make a memory either stick in our minds or do little to help you remember, depending on the circumstances or event (Izquierdo, Furini, Myskiw, 2016). While with the emotion of joy, memories are more easily recalled because they are usually associated with happy thoughts and/or occasions.
Short-term memory only lasts for about a total of 15 to 30 seconds (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1997). While there is robust literature that examine the effects of joy and fear on memory, there have been very little studies done to examine the effects of awe on memory.
While Levine and Burgess (1997) focused on the type of information recalled in different emotional states, our study was aimed at building on Laird et al (1989) findings that emotional intensity increases an individual’s capacity of information recall.
For this reason, we decided to include a dyad emotion (awe), in addition to joy and fear so as to see if being in a state of awe would increase STM performance in individuals. Awe is an emotion that has not been heavily studied in this field of cognition and we believed that awe is a powerful state that would generate high emotional intensity.
The science of awe is barely 15 years old, and there are many more questions left to be explored than those that have been answered (Allen, 2018, pg 4). The current literature states that awe can be both positive or negative and we all have experienced awe at least once in our lifetime. Since Keltner and Haidt’s 2003 article, multiple studies have shown that awe experiences are often accompanied by a diminished sense of self, feelings of connectedness with others, and a sense of being in the presence of something greater than oneself (Allen, 2018, pg 9) and can almost be viewed as being in a trance-like state. A small number of studies have explored different components that may make some people more inclined to experiencing awe than others. For instance, more extraverted people may have a greater propensity to experience awe, as can people who are more receptive to new experiences. Those on the other hand, who are less comfortable with ambiguity, appear to be less likely to experience awe (Allen, 2018).
Irregardless of the personality type an individual has, many studies have not been done to examine the relationship between awe in the different stages and ages of life. Awe moments for a toddler would be discovering that Santa is not real, whereas adults would not find this discovery as a shock. Furthermore, much of the literature have limitations on examining particular age groups. For this reason, we decided to examine individuals aged between 30-46. Moreover, there have been numerous studies to examine the relationship between emotions and different aspects of memory.
Levine & Burgess’ (1997) study aimed at measuring mood congruency in the ability to recall a narrative and found that mood does in fact affect encoding and retrieval of memory. He found that different emotions facilitate encoding of different information: 1) the happy subjects recalled general information, 2) those who were angry recalled goal-oriented information, and 3) those who were sad remembered the outcome of a certain scenario. His study was observing LTM and for this reason, we were intrigued to study effect of emotions on STM and see which emotion was able to generate the best STM performance. Our study measured STM performance on the recall of digits, letters, and numbers.
The purpose of the present study was to measure the effect that emotions, in particular, fear, joy, and awe have on our STM performance. We aim to explore this relationship to gain a better understanding of how emotions affect individuals in the 30-46 year old age range. The current literature does not examine the effects on individuals in a particular age range and we want to see if there are any isolated phenomenons within this age group.
The current study addressed the following research questions: 1) Does one emotion increase STM performance over another for this particular age group? Given that the research discussed above suggests that individuals remember pleasant memories more than negative events, we hypothesize that fear can hinder our ability to retain information in our STM while joy and awe can help enhance one’s STM ability. This can be due to the fact that our response to fear is to fight-or-flight; therefore, we only remember certain details that pertain to our survival. (H1) We hypothesize that if a subject feels fear, then STM memory will decrease. (H2) Last, we hypothesize that joy and awe can enhance STM performance.
Participant 1 was a 46-year-old male. Participant 2 was a 39-year-old male. Participant 3 was a 43-year-old female. Participant 4 was a 32-year-old male. The mean age of participants was 40.
Participants were assigned to one of four conditions. In Condition 1 the emotion was Awe, Condition 2 the emotion was Fear, Condition 3 the emotion was Joy and Condition 4 was our Neutral. To establish a baseline, participants first completed CogLab 24-Memory Span (Time 1). Then, the participant assigned to Condition 1 watched a 3-minute video of awe and then did a 3-minute free writing about the last time he felt the emotion of awe. The participant for condition 2 watched a 3-minute video of fear and then completed a 3-minute free writing of when he last felt anxiety. The participant 3 for condition 3 watched a 3-minute video on joy and then completed a 3-minute freewriting on the last time she felt joy. Participant with the condition 4 watched a neutral 3-minute video and did a 3-minute free writing on when he last went to the grocery store. Upon completion of pre-test and the free writing, all 4 participants completed CogLab 24- Memory Span for a second time (Time 2). The experiment took place in a low-stimulus environment at approximately 2 PM. All participants received adequate amounts of sleep the night before, had eaten both breakfast and lunch. Scores from baseline were compared to those at Time 2 to examine the effects of emotions on memory.
As reflected in Table 1, at baseline and prior to exposure of the awe video, Participant 1 scored 8 digits, 9 letters, and 6 words. After being induced with awe, Participant 1 scored 8 digits, 7 letters, and 7 words. As shown in Table 2, at the pretest and prior to the exposure of a fear inducing video, Participant 2 scored 8 digits, 8 letters, and 5 words. However post test , Participant 2 scored 6 digits, 5 letters, and 4 words. As reflected in Table 3, at Participant 3’s joy baseline scored 6 digits, 4 letters, and 4 words. After exposure to a comedic video, Participant 3 scored 8 digits, 8 letters, and 4 words. As shown in Table 4, the neutral Participant (#4) at baseline scored 4 digits, 5 letters, and 3 words. Post test results revealed that Participant 4 scored 6 digits, 4 letters, and 2 words.
The results of the present study support our H1 hypothesis that being afraid does in fact decrease STM performance. Participant 2 had a decline on memory in digits (from 8 to 6), letters (from 7 to 5), and words (from 5 to 4) after undergoing the video manipulation. This provides significant evidence that being in a state of fear can reduce STM performance. This is especially applicable any daily experience that is perceived as a threat to an individual’s well-being. When this threat becomes chronic where the fear is long-term and future focused, this can greatly affect those who develop an anxiety or any other related negative emotional response to daily experiences that are identified as a dangerous. Here, we support and reiterate the notion that perception determines reality. From this study, we learn that negative emotions that fear induces can cause poor STM performance and we suspect that can cause long-term poor STM performance if the fear of a situation is chronic. These results could be due to the fact that only information related to survival is the processed at a higher level and with deeper encoding processes possibly due to the fact that survival becomes your one purpose. This supports Levine and Burgess (1997) study that much of fear induced memory is goal-oriented in nature. In this case, the sole goal is survival.
Based on our data, we conclude that awe does not have an effect, but joy does have an effect on STM performance. Participant 1, who felt awe, had no change of digits because there was no difference in their scores from pre to post-test (8 to 8). However, Participant 1 did influence memory performance on letters and words. For letters, memory declined after the manipulation (9 to 7). Comparatively, STM of words increased from pre to post (6 to 7). Due to this inverse relationship, we have determined that the results are inconclusive. For this reason, we have to reject half of our H2 hypothesis. We predict that STM decreased for words in comparison to letters because there is a higher threshold to break someone who is in a state of shock like when they experience awe (Allen, 2018). For this reason letters are low threshold and does not take much effort to memorize for 15-30 seconds, whereas words would have to be meaningful or significant enough to bring the person out of the state of awe so they can exercise STM. Examining the effects of a trance like state that is induced by awe can help professors in academia relay concepts to students in a way that will help them use their STM efficiently.
In review of the second part of our H1 hypothesis, Participant 3, who felt joy, had an overall increase on STM performance of digits (from 6 to 8) and on letters (from 4 to 8). However, joy did not have any effect on STM of words (no change from pre to post test). For these reasons, we are able to retain half of our H2 hypothesis. While awe’s results were inconclusive in determining if that state increases our STM performance, we can argue that it is possible that a joyful mood is linked to an overall increase in exercising STM because the list provided words, digits, and letters that are common and can be seen often in everyday life; generally the participant should have general knowledge over material on the list. This is in line with Laird and Burgess’ (1997) notion that happiness helps us to recall general information.
Emotion have a profound influence on cognition, in particular memory by facilitating encoding and retrieving information efficiently (Tyng, Amin, Saad, Malik, 2007; Levine & Burgess (1997). While our study did not define the mechanisms of encoding and retrieval, our study was able to identify trends in STM performance on joy, fear, and awe. We added to the cognitive field by providing research in emotional effects on STM whereas other studies do not measure robusts effects of emotions on STM performance. In any case, our findings support the conclusion and add to the literature by demonstrating that emotions have a significant impact on the function of memory.
Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (2001) defines awe as a state of emotion mixed between surprise and fear. Our study adds to the literature by confirming that awe is a complex emotion in which our study failed to determine if it can help or harm STM performance. After review of our results, we realized that a state of awe can either be positive or negative. A positive state of awe can leave a person in a ‘low and behold’ state that reminds individuals that there is more in life. While we generated a positive effect of awe on STM performance by having our participant watch a video of the Aurora Borealis, further research needs to be done to determine the effects of negative awe. An example of experiencing negative awe would be hearing about the death of a loved one. This case is a perfect example of awe fully manifested in response to a negative event. The unpleasant stimuli and events surrounding dyad emotions should be further investigated and tested to see if there is still a significant effect on STM enhancement onset these particular situations and secondary dyad emotions.
Unfortunately one of the limitations to the study were that we only observed one age group and the age group was 16 years in span. Our study could not answer our question of seeing if age had a significant impact on STM when manipulating emotions because we only had 1 group of participants in the age group of 30-46 with the mean age of 40.
Despite these limitations, our study had some strengths. While we chose distinctive emotional inducing videos, they may not have been enough to fully create an experience that participants would say would make them feel afraid, joy, or awe as meaningful and profound we initially hoped since emotional experiences are subjective. Although emotions are a subjective experience, we can safely say that the participants were at least moderately engaged in the emotion that we were trying to induce. Laird (1989) directly assessed a distinct relationship between a mood itself, and an emotional posture and facial expression. With that being said, we were able to tell if a participant was afraid by observing physiological symptoms like sweating and reporting feeling the fight-or-flight instinct kick in, and having facial physical features such as having raised brows with eyes open wide and clenching of the hands. For happy, we saw our participant with plump cheeks and raised corners of her mouth. Last for awe, we saw the participants eyes elevate upwards and wide, and jaw dropped. For this reason, even though our stimuli may have been weak, we are confident that our participants had the induced emotion, regardless of its intensity. Once we were able to establish that participants were in that state of emotion, we were able to assess if the induced emotion had an effect on STM performance. In addition to our small sample size, our results may not be generalizable due to 1) participants discrepancy of rating their assigned feeling the same emotional intensity and 2) our study having a small sample size of only one participant per condition.
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