The Impact Of Different Emotional Valance Pictures After Chinese Characters Coding On Directed Forgetting

Directed forgetting emphasizes the intention and directivity of forgetting. It studies how the forgetting instruction damage the memory. In recent years, the study of emotional directed forgetting gradually becomes more and more. The researchers explore the directed forgetting through making the experimental materials emotional or evoking the emotional state of participant. However in this way the emotion will influence the coding and consolidation stage of memory instead of separating them. In current studies, we bring in the program of emotional retrograde memory enhancement and combine it with the program of the list method directed forgetting. In studying the list, we present the emotional modulator event(emotional pictures) after the neutral test event(neutral Chinese characters) to evoke the emotion at the consolidation stage only. And then we can explore whether the different emotional pictures after the Chinese characters will enhance the memory of Chinese characters, and further more to influence directed forgetting. In addition, we bring the emotional clues in the recognition test to examine emotional retrograde memory enhancement rely on picture clues or emotional clues to achieve a better result and further more to influence directed forgetting.Results indicate that positive and negative pictures can both enhance the memory of Chinese characters when they need to be remembered, but it disappeared when they need to be forgotten; Directed forgetting effect appeared no matter what the emotional pictures are, and it has a lager directed forgetting effect in positive and negative conditions; The mechanism in this study of directed forgetting is retrieval inhibition.The forgetting instruction stop the retrieval of the event to be forgotten, and it has a same inhibition in different emotional conditions; The retrograde memory enhancement does not depend a special picture clue, a emotional clue lead the effect and make a difference in the directed forgetting.The results of our research have important theoretical significance in exploring the role of emotion in different stage of memory and directed forgetting. It can help us explain why we can not forget useless information and provide guidance in learning field and clinical application.