The Effects of Unexpectedness and Emotional Arousal on Long-Term and Short-Term Memory

Year 2024, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 54 - 66, 30.06.2024

Işılay Pirpiroğlu Gülten Ünal

Abstract

Memory is quite selective. Many factors (e.g. familiarity, unexpectedness, emotions) affect memory performance. The current study investigates the effects of unexpectedness and emotional arousal on long-term and short-term memory. For this aim, 125 undergraduate students were randomly assigned into 4 conditions: 2 unexpectedness (high vs. low) and 2 emotional arousal (negatively-valanced vs. positively-valanced). For unexpectedness manipulation, 9 commonly used Turkish proverbs were used. A word was removed from the middle of each proverb and proverbs were presented to the participants. Then, they were asked to mentally guess the missing word. In the next page, the missing part was filled in with a new word. Words that did not disrupt the flow of meaning and were similar to the original word extracted from the proverb were used for the low unexpected condition. While new words chosen far from the original word were used for the high unexpected condition. Two types of music (positive vs. negative valance) were used for emotional arousal. Short-term memory performance includes the number of correct words remembered after the experiment, while long-term memory includes the number of correct words remembered 24 hours after the experiment. The result of the study showed that the low unexpected stimulus group, when combined with negative stimulation, led to increased performance in long-term memory. Thus, it has been observed that both stimulus unexpectedness and the degree of unexpectedness have effect on memory performance.

Keywords

unexpectedness, emotional arousal, short term memory, novelty, long term memory

Beklenmediklik ve Duygusal Uyarılmanın Uzun Süreli ve Kısa Süreli Bellek Üzerindeki Etkileri

Abstract

Bellek oldukça seçicidir. Çeşitli faktörler (örneğin, yenilik, beklenmediklik, duygular) bellek performansını etkiler. Bu çalışma, beklenmediklik derecesi ve duygusal uyarılmanın uzun ve kısa süreli bellek üzerindeki etkilerine incelemektedir. Bunun için 125 lisans öğrencisi rastgele olarak 4 gruba ayrılmıştır: 2 beklenmediklik (yüksek ve düşük) ve 2 duygusal uyarılma (negatif değerli ve pozitif değerli). Beklenmediklik manipülasyonu için, 9 yaygın kullanıma sahip Türk atasözü kullanıldı. Her bir atasözününün ortasından bir kelime çıkarıldı ve atasözleri katılımcılara sunuldu. Katılımcılardan boşlukları zihinsel olarak tahmin etmeleri istendi. Bir sonraki sayfada, boşluk yeni bir kelime ile dolduruldu. Düşük beklenmediklik durumu için, anlam akışını bozmayan ve atasözünden çıkarılan orijinal kelimeye benzer olan kelimeler kullanıldı. Yüksek beklenmediklik durumu içinse orijinal kelimeden anlamsal olarak uzak kelimeler kullanıldı. Duygusal uyarılma için iki tür müzik (pozitif ve negatif değerli) kullanıldı. Kısa süreli bellek performansı, deneyden sonra hatırlanan doğru kelimelerin sayısını içerirken, uzun süreli bellek ise deneyden 24 saat sonra hatırlanan doğru kelimelerin sayısını içerir. Çalışmanın sonucu, düşük beklenmedik uyarıcıların, negatif uyarılma ile birleştirildiğinde uzun süreli bellekte performansın artmasına neden olduğunu gösterdi. Böylece hem uyarıcı beklenmedikliğinin hem de beklenmediklik derecesinin bellek performansını etkilediği gözlemlenmiştir.

Keywords

beklenmediklik, duygusal uyarılma, yenilik, kısa süreli bellek, uzun süreli bellek

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