How Positive Emotion and Self-Reported Depressive Symptoms Affect Episodic Memory Accuracy

Oncescu, Mihai Andrei (2024) How Positive Emotion and Self-Reported Depressive Symptoms Affect Episodic Memory Accuracy. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

The effects of emotion on episodic memory have mainly been established through the use of negative stimuli. Additionally, the way depression affects episodic memory in non-clinical samples has rarely been investigated using experimental methods. This study attempted to expand our understanding of these topics by making use of a novel imagination paradigm during which emotional stimuli are paired with faces, places, and objects in order to create emotional episodic memories, which were then tested through an object memory and association memory task. We also investigated whether our participants’ ability to vividly recreate imaginary depictions of visual stimuli affected their performance on the given tasks. We observed no effects of positive emotion induction on episodic memory accuracy. Additionally, self-reported symptoms of depression also did not correlate significantly with performance on either of the memory tasks. Our data suggested that the method we used to induce emotion did not work. Moreover, the tools used to measure the vividness of imaginary depictions did not correlate with the participants’ accuracy on the memory tests. With regard to depression, our study supports the idea that mild depressive symptoms do not correlate with memory performance as part of episodic memory paradigms.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	Nieuwenstein, M.R. and Ruuskanen, V.H.S.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	None [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	23 Jul 2024 13:46
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2024 13:46
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4093

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