The Influence Of Time Interval And Learning Method On The Effect Of Emotional Retrograde Memory Enhancement With Different Learning Materials

Compare with neutral event, emotional event is easier to be remembered. Furthermore, Emotionally arousing events which followed with neutral event can enhance the memory of the neutral event. that means the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement happened. In the past, researchers always focused on the time window about neutral event and emotionally arousing event. In contrast, there was few people do research about the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement affected by different learning methods and the time interval between memorizing and abstracting. In this paper, we use the method of after learning paradigm to study the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement affect by time interval and learning method.Test1and test2use the method of piecemeal learning. After the subjects learning a picture or word, a positive picture or neutral picture was used to arouse the positive or neutral emotion accordingly. The time interval between learning and abstracting in test1was24hours. But in test2the subjects were required to recognize after the learning phase immediately. Test1turns out that, words or pictures matched with positive emotion compared with words or pictures matched with neutral emotion presented no much difference. Test2showed the opposite conclusion which presented significant difference. We draw a conclusion that immediate recognition arouses the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement easier with the method of piecemeal learning.Test3and test4use the method of massed learning. After the subjects learning a pictures or words, positive pictures or neutral pictures was used to arouse the positive or neutral emotion accordingly. The time interval between learning and abstracting in test3was24hours. But in test4the subjects were required to recognize after the learning phase immediately. Test3turns out that, words or pictures matched with positive emotion compared with words or pictures matched with neutral emotion presented no much difference. Test4turns out that words matched with positive emotion compared with words matched with neutral emotion presented no much difference, but pictures matched with positive emotion compared with pictures matched with neutral emotion showed significant difference. We draw a conclusion that immediate recognition arouses the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement easier with the method of massed learning. Compared with test2and test4, the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement is easier to be aroused with the method of piecemeal learning.Based on test2, test5changed the way of emotional arousal. And the conclusion is consistent with test3, which means the way of emotional arousal didn’t affect the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement.In conclusion, the time interval and learning method affect the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement. And immediate recognition is more likely to arouse the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement compared with24hour time interval. Compared with massed learning, the effect of emotional retrograde memory enhancement is easier to be aroused with the method of piecemeal learning.