Affective Memory
The Affect Effect: Memory Magnification or Distortion?
When calling upon stored memory for learning, snaptic pathways are often triggered within declarative memory systems controlled by the hippocampal region of the brain. However, if the cues for memory recall trigger emotions, then learned responses through the amygdala are activated, instead of the hippocampus, and can lead to memory magnification or distortion. Magnification makes memories more lasting and meaningful which, as previously discussed, can cause it to become easier to store, connect, and recall. However, the potential for memory distortion also exists when emotions (affective) effect is triggered. For the purpose of this research, affective memory will be defined as memory which activates an emotional response through the amygdala leading to magnification of the memory and possible distortion. Researchers Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel argue that emotions can distort memory by coloring a person's perspective. They explain,
Memory can be distorted in many ways. People interpret a story in light of their world knowledge, imposing order where none had been present so as to make a more logical story. Memory is a reconstruction. We cannot remember every aspect of an event, so we remember those elements that have greatest emotional significance for us, and we fill in the gaps with details of our own that are consistent with our narrative but may be wrong. (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 112)
Since affective memory is largely personalized, it is often difficult to understand why memories trigger certain emotional responses in people. Silvan Tomkins, the psychologist who developed affect theory, believes that the role memory plays in creating affective dispositions has been largely underemphasized, despite its significance (60). Tomkins asserts that affective memory is responsible for providing “prefabricated analogs that, when transmuted, are the perceptual experience” (60). For Tomkins, memory holds accumulated affective responses which are called upon by emotional triggers for involuntary, automatic responses to stimuli. Pruchnic and Lacey explain this same phenomenon as “affective tags” or “somatic markers” which increase “our chances of responding in similar fashion when confronted with or recalling the original stimulus as well as others that we perceive” (486). When emotional triggers are activated, affective memory sends the body into programmed (memorized) responses.
In the composition classroom these emotional responses may be manifested in the student who is extra emotional and sensitive about their paper (the topic or a related experience) or their writing in general. In some cases they may even exhibit other emotions such as anger, frustration, or indifference. Often, these affective responses can pose barriers to the work we are trying to do with students. It can be difficult to get a student to work productively or understand how to improve their writing when they are distracted by emotions. At times it can seem daunting to work with emotional students because they are literally thinking irrationally (emotionally rather than using cognitive memory). In fact, emotionally charged experiences and information are expressed and processed through the amygdala rather than through the hippocampal region responsible for declarative (rational or cognizant) memory (Eichenbaum, "Learning and Memory" 235). The affective trigger causes an emotional response to occur simultaneously without even thinking about it. Emotional arousal of an event or experience causes a person to retain images which are very vivid and lasting. Even subsequent memory can be affected by these emotions. At these moments students are literally using another region in their brain and the most effective way to work with them may be to attempt to engage the cognitive systems through questioning and cues which stimulate critical thought. Trying to talk someone out of an emotional response when the amygdala is engaged is often unsuccessful since reasoning takes place through the hippocampus and not the amygdala. Eichenbaum found that when emotional responses are taken out of context, explaining context generally does not help. Eichenbaum explains, “context recognition is supported by a separate (hippocampal) pathway. This pathway...does not have sufficient influence to prevent the conditioned fear (or emotional) response mediated by the direct amygdala pathway that supports cued fear conditioning” ("Learning and Memory" 251). Getting students to engage cognitive systems when learning may become critical in promoting future transfer and learning. However, research is finding that there may also be benefits to using emotions to enhance memory processes. Modern marketing campaigns via technology are capitalizing on this phenomenon and have set a trend towards what researchers are calling "the affective turn."
The Affective Turn
Pruchnic and Lacey assert that as external memory storage has grown in response to digital media and computer technology, an associated and similar trend has occurred in the growth of internal rhetorical memory through affective structures (481). As people are storing more memory outside of themselves through use of technology, so to is the media increasingly drawing upon pathos to access affective domains and call upon affective responses for persuasive appeals, which Pruchnic and Lacey refer to as “the affective turn” (482). The use of affective appeals for persuasion dates back to ancient Greece and is documented by Plato in the Phaedrus where Socrates abhors the Sophists use of pathos in rhetorical appeals (85-86d). But despite the ethics involved in ancient Greece and modern day persuasion, the increasing appeal to affective domains leads to strengthened emotional responses to stimuli and opens a potential to draw upon these domains to facilitate transfer or at least explain affective barriers to transfer. Affective responses can be powerful and when triggered can both create barriers to transfer and effectively link memories through enhanced memory strength. Pruchnic and Lacey believe that engaging affective domains may also bridge the gap between memory systems.
This focused creation and manipulation of personal memory and affective response goes hand in glove with the technologically mediated niche marketing techniques…; the two come together to form a relatively novel system of persuasive techniques leveraging the overlaps between cognizant, personal memory and both its externalization in mass mediated informatic networks and its internalization into affective responses and preferences encoded in our nervous systems. (Pruchnic and Lacey 489)
Pruchnic and Lacey understand that emotions can activate multiple memory systems to work together in storing memory and promoting affective responses. Neuroscientists confirm this notion and argue that emotional arousal can enhance memory. Howard Eichenbaum explains that when emotions are aroused, the amygdala triggers the release of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine which has been found to enhance memory consolidation (375). In other words, "Emotional experiences enhance cognitive memories" (Eichenbaum, "Learning and Memory" 233). Linking experiences with emotional responses is a great way to create meaning. Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel contend, “Learning is stronger when it matters, when the abstract is made concrete and personal” (11). When experiences are emotionally charged and perceived as meaningful they become stronger memories that are easier to recall and remake, thus encouraging transfer.
Expectancy Value Theory
Expectancy-Value Theory, originally developed by Martin Fishbein, has been applied to transfer research as a means of understanding student perceptions and dispositions. Driscoll asserts, “When applied to writing and FYC (first year composition), this theory suggests that students who do not value their FYC courses as useful for future disciplinary writing will see little motivation for exerting effort initially, and hence, the transfer of knowledge to other areas will most likely be unsuccessful.” Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel agree that effortful learning improves memory and transfer, and without effort or meaning there is little opportunity for the physiological process of transfer to occur. Nelms and Dively agree that “motivation to learn” can influence transfer by effecting “the time spent on task and the amount of attention devoted to the task” (218). Ultimately, students with higher expectations tend to have higher levels of motivation. Viewing these findings through the lens of the expectancy-value theory suggests that students are not placing enough value on learning in FYC. While value attribution can offer insight on student motivation, other research links motivation to individual student mindset.
Psychological researcher, Carol Dweck, performed a study testing the effects of teaching students that their “level of intellectual ability is not fixed but rests to a large degree in your own hands” (as quoted by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 179). The study confirmed that those students who maintained a “growth mindset” (versus a “fixed mindset”) “imbues a person with the sense of possibility and the creativity and persistence needed for higher learning and success” (as quoted in Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 183). Students who choose learning goals versus performance goals, to guide them, perform better and grow more intelligent over time. Performance-driven students tend to stick to tasks they are already competent at thereby diminishing their opportunity for growth. When pushed to take on something new, or something previously failed at, performance-driven students feel defeated and pass on the opportunity for growth and learning (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 183). Dweck's studies have shown that mindset matters for learning. While much more research is needed on affective memory and psychological motivation theories to fully uncover the role that these systems play in transfer and learning, what we can take away from this cursory examination is that emotions impact learning and transfer (both as barriers and enhancers) and meaningful learning is imperative for logging information into long-term memory and making the information available for future recall.
When calling upon stored memory for learning, snaptic pathways are often triggered within declarative memory systems controlled by the hippocampal region of the brain. However, if the cues for memory recall trigger emotions, then learned responses through the amygdala are activated, instead of the hippocampus, and can lead to memory magnification or distortion. Magnification makes memories more lasting and meaningful which, as previously discussed, can cause it to become easier to store, connect, and recall. However, the potential for memory distortion also exists when emotions (affective) effect is triggered. For the purpose of this research, affective memory will be defined as memory which activates an emotional response through the amygdala leading to magnification of the memory and possible distortion. Researchers Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel argue that emotions can distort memory by coloring a person's perspective. They explain,
Memory can be distorted in many ways. People interpret a story in light of their world knowledge, imposing order where none had been present so as to make a more logical story. Memory is a reconstruction. We cannot remember every aspect of an event, so we remember those elements that have greatest emotional significance for us, and we fill in the gaps with details of our own that are consistent with our narrative but may be wrong. (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 112)
Since affective memory is largely personalized, it is often difficult to understand why memories trigger certain emotional responses in people. Silvan Tomkins, the psychologist who developed affect theory, believes that the role memory plays in creating affective dispositions has been largely underemphasized, despite its significance (60). Tomkins asserts that affective memory is responsible for providing “prefabricated analogs that, when transmuted, are the perceptual experience” (60). For Tomkins, memory holds accumulated affective responses which are called upon by emotional triggers for involuntary, automatic responses to stimuli. Pruchnic and Lacey explain this same phenomenon as “affective tags” or “somatic markers” which increase “our chances of responding in similar fashion when confronted with or recalling the original stimulus as well as others that we perceive” (486). When emotional triggers are activated, affective memory sends the body into programmed (memorized) responses.
In the composition classroom these emotional responses may be manifested in the student who is extra emotional and sensitive about their paper (the topic or a related experience) or their writing in general. In some cases they may even exhibit other emotions such as anger, frustration, or indifference. Often, these affective responses can pose barriers to the work we are trying to do with students. It can be difficult to get a student to work productively or understand how to improve their writing when they are distracted by emotions. At times it can seem daunting to work with emotional students because they are literally thinking irrationally (emotionally rather than using cognitive memory). In fact, emotionally charged experiences and information are expressed and processed through the amygdala rather than through the hippocampal region responsible for declarative (rational or cognizant) memory (Eichenbaum, "Learning and Memory" 235). The affective trigger causes an emotional response to occur simultaneously without even thinking about it. Emotional arousal of an event or experience causes a person to retain images which are very vivid and lasting. Even subsequent memory can be affected by these emotions. At these moments students are literally using another region in their brain and the most effective way to work with them may be to attempt to engage the cognitive systems through questioning and cues which stimulate critical thought. Trying to talk someone out of an emotional response when the amygdala is engaged is often unsuccessful since reasoning takes place through the hippocampus and not the amygdala. Eichenbaum found that when emotional responses are taken out of context, explaining context generally does not help. Eichenbaum explains, “context recognition is supported by a separate (hippocampal) pathway. This pathway...does not have sufficient influence to prevent the conditioned fear (or emotional) response mediated by the direct amygdala pathway that supports cued fear conditioning” ("Learning and Memory" 251). Getting students to engage cognitive systems when learning may become critical in promoting future transfer and learning. However, research is finding that there may also be benefits to using emotions to enhance memory processes. Modern marketing campaigns via technology are capitalizing on this phenomenon and have set a trend towards what researchers are calling "the affective turn."
The Affective Turn
Pruchnic and Lacey assert that as external memory storage has grown in response to digital media and computer technology, an associated and similar trend has occurred in the growth of internal rhetorical memory through affective structures (481). As people are storing more memory outside of themselves through use of technology, so to is the media increasingly drawing upon pathos to access affective domains and call upon affective responses for persuasive appeals, which Pruchnic and Lacey refer to as “the affective turn” (482). The use of affective appeals for persuasion dates back to ancient Greece and is documented by Plato in the Phaedrus where Socrates abhors the Sophists use of pathos in rhetorical appeals (85-86d). But despite the ethics involved in ancient Greece and modern day persuasion, the increasing appeal to affective domains leads to strengthened emotional responses to stimuli and opens a potential to draw upon these domains to facilitate transfer or at least explain affective barriers to transfer. Affective responses can be powerful and when triggered can both create barriers to transfer and effectively link memories through enhanced memory strength. Pruchnic and Lacey believe that engaging affective domains may also bridge the gap between memory systems.
This focused creation and manipulation of personal memory and affective response goes hand in glove with the technologically mediated niche marketing techniques…; the two come together to form a relatively novel system of persuasive techniques leveraging the overlaps between cognizant, personal memory and both its externalization in mass mediated informatic networks and its internalization into affective responses and preferences encoded in our nervous systems. (Pruchnic and Lacey 489)
Pruchnic and Lacey understand that emotions can activate multiple memory systems to work together in storing memory and promoting affective responses. Neuroscientists confirm this notion and argue that emotional arousal can enhance memory. Howard Eichenbaum explains that when emotions are aroused, the amygdala triggers the release of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine which has been found to enhance memory consolidation (375). In other words, "Emotional experiences enhance cognitive memories" (Eichenbaum, "Learning and Memory" 233). Linking experiences with emotional responses is a great way to create meaning. Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel contend, “Learning is stronger when it matters, when the abstract is made concrete and personal” (11). When experiences are emotionally charged and perceived as meaningful they become stronger memories that are easier to recall and remake, thus encouraging transfer.
Expectancy Value Theory
Expectancy-Value Theory, originally developed by Martin Fishbein, has been applied to transfer research as a means of understanding student perceptions and dispositions. Driscoll asserts, “When applied to writing and FYC (first year composition), this theory suggests that students who do not value their FYC courses as useful for future disciplinary writing will see little motivation for exerting effort initially, and hence, the transfer of knowledge to other areas will most likely be unsuccessful.” Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel agree that effortful learning improves memory and transfer, and without effort or meaning there is little opportunity for the physiological process of transfer to occur. Nelms and Dively agree that “motivation to learn” can influence transfer by effecting “the time spent on task and the amount of attention devoted to the task” (218). Ultimately, students with higher expectations tend to have higher levels of motivation. Viewing these findings through the lens of the expectancy-value theory suggests that students are not placing enough value on learning in FYC. While value attribution can offer insight on student motivation, other research links motivation to individual student mindset.
Psychological researcher, Carol Dweck, performed a study testing the effects of teaching students that their “level of intellectual ability is not fixed but rests to a large degree in your own hands” (as quoted by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 179). The study confirmed that those students who maintained a “growth mindset” (versus a “fixed mindset”) “imbues a person with the sense of possibility and the creativity and persistence needed for higher learning and success” (as quoted in Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 183). Students who choose learning goals versus performance goals, to guide them, perform better and grow more intelligent over time. Performance-driven students tend to stick to tasks they are already competent at thereby diminishing their opportunity for growth. When pushed to take on something new, or something previously failed at, performance-driven students feel defeated and pass on the opportunity for growth and learning (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 183). Dweck's studies have shown that mindset matters for learning. While much more research is needed on affective memory and psychological motivation theories to fully uncover the role that these systems play in transfer and learning, what we can take away from this cursory examination is that emotions impact learning and transfer (both as barriers and enhancers) and meaningful learning is imperative for logging information into long-term memory and making the information available for future recall.