Rumination on Memory and Emotion, Part 4: Arousal Theory

Humans are constantly exposed to a myriad of stimuli daily: sights, sounds, smells, tastes. However, we ultimately register a very small percentage of them for long-term memory in the neocortex. What determines the importance of a memory, and therefore what is ultimately retained long-term? It seems that emotionally charged events are far easier for humans to recall than neutral ones, and a possible factor is that emotional events demand more of our attention than neutral events. “Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently.” (Tyng, Amin, Saad, Malik, 1) Additionally, we tend to examine emotional events more closely than neutral events, thinking about them more after the event has taken place. Emotional events are “usually related to important themes or goals in our lives; this is presumably what makes them emotional in the first place. Perhaps it is this relation to important themes that is crucial for memory” (Reisberg, Heuer 11) as opposed to the emotionality. No matter the case, emotional events are often difficult to forget. The long-term retention of emotional memories over neutral memories is backed by a phenomenon called “arousal theory” (Dodson, Yerkes, from 1908 manuscript), which states that performance tends to improve with mental or physiological arousal, but only to a certain extent. In the case of memory, it is believed that emotional experiences form stronger memories than weaker or neutral experiences, enhancing retention of high-priority information, and inhibiting memory for information that is of low priority. One reason for this is “emotional experiences can trigger the release of neurotransmitters, as well as hormones, which strengthen memory; therefore, our memory for an emotional event is usually better than our memory for a non-emotional event. When humans and animals are stressed, the brain secretes more of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which helps to remember the stressful event (Szapiro et al, 2003).” (Jenkins, Dumper, Lacombe, Lovett, Perimutter, Washington State University, Pressbooks, 2019 unpaginated).

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Reisberg, Daniel, and Friderike Heuer. “Memory for Emotional Events.” Essay. In Memory and Emotion, edited by Paula Hertel and Daniel Reisberg, 3–41. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010.

Tyng, Chai M., Hafeez U. Amin, Mohamad N. Saad, and Aamir S. Malik. “The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory.” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454.

Dumper, Kathryn, William Jenkins, Arlene Lacombe, Marilyn Lovett, and Marion Perimutter. “Parts of the Brain Involved in Memory.” Introductory psychology. Accessed November 27, 2021. https://opentext.wsu.edu/psych105/chapter/8-3-parts-of-the-brain-involved-in-memory.