Emotion and Memory

Did you know that emotions help your memory remember information?  Emotion plays an important part in how we remember things.

In general, emotions highlight certain parts of our experiences to make them more memorable.  It works in so many ways with our memories.  Some may be new to you, some may not.

First is attention which helps our minds determine what is most important in our lives.  Emotions such as novelty or surprise, helps us focus on conversations so we are aware of a few items which allows to use our limited attention span to its optimum.

Second is consolidation of memories.  The truth is that most of the information we are exposed to, do not make it into our long term memory.  When we have an emotional connection to something, we are more likely to remember it. For instance, most people of a certain age can tell you about 9/11 because of the emotions it brought up in everyone.  This is because certain stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine help us consolidate our memories.

Thirdly, it appears that those memories associated with painful events stay with us longer than memories associated with physical pain.  Contrary to the rhyme about "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" we do remember the words that hurt us.

Next is priming or triggering behavior through the use of unconscious suggestions.  For instance, if people unscrambled sentences that contained suggestions of self control, they would immediately make better choices when it came to eating snacks.

Then we have mood memory which is where we recall memories which have the same emotional feeling as the way we feel at that moment.  So if we are sad, we are more likely to remember things that are sad.

Blanking out is something most of us have experienced at one time or another.  It has nothing to do with drinking but being so stressed out we forget things.  This usually happens during tests.  It turns out that if we are bored or too stressed, our performance is likely to suffer.  When we are bored, our minds are unfocused but if we are too stressed, our minds are too focused and we miss information.  The best place to be is when we are in moderate stimulation.

Finally, we have a duration memory because we do not remember everything involved with the memory.  Instead we remember the best or worst moment and the last moment.  We do not remember everything of the event.

This is why it is important to connect emotion with any learning, otherwise it won't stick.  In the future sometime, I'll cover emotions and learning math.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.