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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research explores Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) as a possible therapeutic technique in interventions dealing with trauma. The study focuses specifically on the adolescent phase. A distinction is made between developmental trauma and single-incident trauma and its impact on development. An attempt is made to acquire a deeper insight into adolescents’ experience of trauma. The purpose of the adolescent phase is the development of a sound identity. The challenges and the impact of traumatic experiences on the development of the adolescent on the road to adulthood are examined more closely. The symptoms of trauma and specifically the effect of trauma on the adolescent are highlighted. The study adopted an interpretivist paradigm. A qualitative design with multiple case studies was selected for the research. The research included five cases. The study was limited to adolescents who ranged in age from 13-19 years in an Afrikaans school in Johannesburg. Intake discussions were held with the parents. Intake discussions in accordance with the EMDR approach were held with the participants. Each participant attended 4 sessions. Various themes were identified in each interview, but two main themes emerged: the emotions of the adolescents regarding the trauma they experienced; the influence of trauma on the self-concept of the participants; that led to a deeper grasp of the participants’ experiences. An insight was gained into the influence that traumatic experiences had on the lives of the participants as well as the influence of these experiences on their families, school and social contexts. The main findings indicate that EMDR as a therapeutic technique does have the potential to provide support to adolescents who have been exposed to single-incident or developmental trauma. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing handel daaroor om Oogbeweging Desensitisasie en Herprosessering (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) (EMDR) as terapeutiese tegniek te eksploreer as moontlike intervensie vir trauma. Die studie fokus spesifiek op die adolessente fase. Daar sal onderskei word tussen ontwikkelingstrauma en ʼn enkele traumatiese ervaring en die impak daarvan op ontwikkeling. Daar is gepoog om ʼn verdieping van insig met betrekking to die adolessent in sy ervaring van trauma ter verkry. Die adolessente fase het ten doel tot die ontwikkeling van ʼn gesonde identitieit. Die uitdagings en die impak van traumatiese ervarings op die die ontwikkeling van die adolessent op sy pad na volwassenheid word van naderby bekyk. Die simptome van trauma en spesifiek die effek van trauma op die adolessent word uitgelig. Die studie was vanuit die interpretivistiese paradigma onderneem. ʼn Kwalitatiewe navorsingsontwerp met meervoudige gevallestudies was geselekteer. Vyf gevallestudies is in die navorsing ingesluit. Die studie was beperk tot adolessente wat wissel tussen die ouderdom van 13-19 jaar wat verbonde is aan ʼn Afrikaanse skool in Johannesburg. Invoergesprekke is met die ouers gehou. Invoergesprekke volgens die EMDR benadering is met die deelnemers afgelê. Daar is 4 EMDR sessies aan elke deelnemer gebied. Verskeie temas is in elke onderhoud geïdentifiseer. Daar het twee hooftemas na vore gekom: die emosies van die adolessente ten opsigte van die trauma wat hulle beleef het, die invloed wat trauma op die self-konsep van die deelnemers uitgeoefen het wat ondersteun het tot ʼn diepe begryping van die deelnemers se ervarings. Insig is verkry in watter invloed traumatiese ervarings op die lewe van die deelnemers gehad het asook die invloed daarvan op hul gesinne, skool en sosiale konteks. Die hoof-bevindinge dui daarop dat EMDR as terapeutiese tegniek wel oor die potensiaal beskik in die ondersteuning aan adolessente wat aan ʼn enkel-insident of ontwikkelingstrauma blootgestel is.

Thesis (MEd(Psych)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the use of Eye Movement Desensitisation (hereafter referred to as EMDR), a form of psychotherapy on a female adolescent sexual assault survivor. Adolescence as a developmental stage is characterised by specific issues, such as the search for own identity. Sexual trauma may increase the inner conflict, because of the adolescent's ability to deal with the trauma at a higher cognitive level than in earlier childhood. Without support including psychotherapy, the adolescent sexual assault survivor may be at risk of developing mental health problems including Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome (hereafter referred to as PTSD). This research is a qualitative case study, involving only one adolescent participant. Mary (pseudonym) a sexual assault survivor, was selected from referrals the Unit for Educational Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch received from the Child Protection Unit of the South African Police Services. She was referred because she displayed symptoms of depression and PTSD, which affected her relations with her parents, siblings and peers. She also struggled to cope emotionally with the academic demands of school. The ecosystemic approach was chosen as the preferred framework within which to locate this study. In assessment and intervention this framework lends itself to focussing on relationships and systems rather than merely the individual with a problem. The study explores the use of EMDR to alleviate symptoms of depression and PTSD in Mary. She attended thirteen sessions of which the first three were used to assess her level of functioning. Data were collected by means of self-report questionnaires including the Beck's Depression Inventory and the Dissociative Experiences Scale, interviews and therapy sessions during which EMDR was used. The data were analysed using codes, categories and themes, interpreted and the study concluded with a discussion of the findings. The findings suggest that EMDR effectively alleviated Mary's symptoms of depression and PTSD. However, since the study was limited to a single participant, a larger sample is recommended to determine whether EMDR might be a feasible treatment tool for female adolescent sexual assault survivors. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die gebruik van Oogbeweging Desensitifisering Herprosessering (hierna verwys as OBDH), 'n tipe psigoterapie, om 'n vroulike adolessente slagoffer van seksuele misbruik te ondersteun. Adolessensie as 'n ontwikkelingsfase word deur spesifieke kwessies gekenmerk, onder andere die soeke na 'n eie identiteit. Seksuele trauma mag die innerlike konflik verhoog, weens die adolessent se vermoeë om dit op 'n hoër vlak van ontwikkeling as die jonger kind te hanteer. Sonder ondersteuning, insluitend psigoterapie, mag die adolessent die risiko loop om geestesversteurings soos Posttraumatiese stresversteuring (hierna verwys as PTSV) te ontwikkel. Hierdie navorsing was 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie en slegs een adolessente deelnemer was daarby betrokke. Mary (skuilnaam) 'n seksuele geweld oorwinnaar, is gekies vanuit verwysings wat die Eenheid vir Opvoedkundige Sielkunde van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch van die Kinderbeskermings-eenheid van die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisie Dienste ontvang het. Sy is verwys aangesien sy blykbaar simptome van depressie en PTSV geopenbaar het, wat haar verhoudings met haar ouers, sibbe en portuurgroep beïnvloed het. Sy het ook emosioneel gesukkel om die akademiese eise van die skool te hanteer. Die ekosistemiese benadering is gekies as die raamwerk vir hierdie studie. In assessering en intervensie lê dié benadering groter klem op verhoudings en sisteme, as op 'n individu met 'n probleem. Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stelof die gebruik van OBDH verligting van simptome van depressie en PTSV in Mary teweeg sou bring. Sy het dertien sessies bygewoon en die eerste drie is gebruik om haar vlak van funksionering te bepaal. Data is ingesamel deur middel van die Beck's Depression Inventory en die Dissociative Experiences Scale vraelyste, onderhoude en terapie sessies waarin OBDH ook gebruik was. Die data is ontleed deur middel van kodes, kategorieë en temas, geïnterpreteer en die studie eindig met 'n bespreking van die bevindinge. Die bevindinge het aangedui dat OBDH effektief Mary se simptome van depressie en PTSV verlig. Omdat die studie egter beperk was tot 'n enkele deelnemer, word 'n groter getal deelnemers aanbeveel om te bepaal of OBDH moontlik geskik is om vroulike adolesente oorwinnaars van seksueel geweld te ondersteun.

本研究是探討中文雙字詞的語意透明度是否影響詞彙在心理辭典中的表徵方式。實驗一、二操弄詞彙的語意透明度、字頻及詞頻，以詞彙判斷作業進行。結果發現顯著的語意透明度效果，語意不透明的詞（成語詞）之反應時間和錯誤率均較語意透明的詞（組合詞）少；詞頻效果也達顯著，高頻詞的反應時間和錯誤率均較低頻詞少。而字頻與語意透明度間有交互作用存在，組合詞有顯著的字頻效果，成語詞則不受字頻影響。實驗三、四則利用眼動追蹤技術，探討不同語意透明度、字頻、詞頻的詞彙在語句中的閱讀處理歷程。結果發現，在有關凝視時間的指標上，均出現顯著的語意透明度效果和詞頻效果。成語詞的字頻效果除了出現於第一次凝視時間指標外，在其餘指標上均無字頻效果。組合詞的字頻效果則出現於第一次凝視時間及總凝視時間上，而第一次經過的其餘眼動指標也有存在字頻效果的趨勢。本篇研究以Taft annd Zhu(1995)的多層次交互激發表徵模式為架構，提出一中文成語詞與組合詞的詞彙表徵模型。此模式顯示組合詞在詞素層次具有詞素表徵，在詞彙層次具有全詞表徵。而成語詞在詞素層次無對應的詞素表徵，是以全詞方式表徵於詞彙層次中。 關鍵字：眼動、語意透明度、心理辭典 / The present study aims to investigate the semantic transparency of Chinese di-syllabic words whether influences the representation in mental lexicon. Two sets of experimental tasks were adopted. In the first set (experiment 1 and 2), the target words were varied in terms of semantic transparency, character frequency and word frequency. Subjects were asked to deicide whether the target word presented is a word or not. A two-way ANOVA indicated main effects for semantic transparency that idiomatic words were responded faster than compositional words, for word frequency that high frequency words were responded faster than low frequency words. There were also significant interactions between character frequency and semantic transparency. In the compositional condition, the results clearly showed a significant character frequency effect, but in the idiomatic condition, the results showed no character frequency effect. In the second set (experiment 3 and 4), eye movements of subjects were monitored as they read sentences containing target words that varied on terms of semantic transparency, character frequency and word frequency. There were significant semantic transparency effect and word frequency effect in the fixation duration measures. Except the first fixation duration, there was no character frequency effect with idiomatic words in other measures. The results showed a significant character frequency effect with compositional words in the first fixation duration (FFD) and total viewing duration(TVD), and showed a marginal significant character frequency effect in other first pass measures. The present study proposed a model of mental lexicon based on the Interactive-activation Model (Taft & Zhu, 1995). In our model, the compositional words have morpheme and whole word representation, and the idiomatic words are processed as single units, have whole word representation but no morpheme representation. Key words：eye movement、semantic transparency、mental lexicon

在現今的基於內容的圖像檢索的研究中，會將人的主觀認知考慮進去。因為傳統的圖像檢索中採取低階特徵來找出圖片上可能的重要區域的方法和人的感覺還是有著相當大的語意上的鴻溝。然而藉由考慮人對圖片的主觀認知，可以讓人找到對它而言圖片上重要的部分，再去做圖像檢索，找出使用者想要的圖片。這樣的作法是比較自然且直觀的。還能達到個人化的效果，因為每個人對同一張圖片上覺得重要的物體可能不盡相同。在本論文中的圖像檢索系統採用眼動軌跡當作人的主觀認知來輔助檢索。因為在心理學的研究中有提到，人在看圖片的時候會有較多的凝視點落在他覺得重要的區域上。所以藉由這個理論，本論文利用使用者看圖片的眼動軌跡即時的調整圖片上物體的重要性。最後將重要性高的數個物體去做圖像檢索，找出含有這些對這個使用者是重要的物體的圖片。經由實驗證實，眼動軌跡輔助圖像檢索的確可以減少不重要的物體對圖像檢索的干擾，繼而可以提升圖像檢索系統的效能。 / Recently, researches in Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) focuses on incorporation of knowledge about human perception in the systems’ design and implementation process. This enables the design of more natural and intuitive image retrieval techniques in order to overcome some of the challenges faced by modern CBIR system such as the difficulty to extract important regions of an image. By researches of psychology, user’s eye tracking reflects his interest. So, in my CBIR system, user’s eye movements were used online to adjust the importance for objects in query image. Thus in my system, only those images with important objects will be retrieved. One experiment was performed: record the eye movement of participants on query images. Then compare my approach with a classic CBIR system according to performance. The results reveal that higher retrieval performance of my image retrieval system because of decreasing the influence of not importance objects to image retrieval system.

本研究主要目的是想要探討當人們面對不同重要性的決策時，情緒對決策的影響是否也會隨之改變，研究者利用眼動及生理測量去量測在不同的實驗情境下，受測者眼動型態以及生理反應。本研究兩個實驗皆為受試者間設計，獨變項分別為情緒(快樂與悲傷)與決策重要程度(高與低)。在實驗一中，研究者給予受試者聆聽不同情緒的音樂，並且藉由指導語操弄決策重要性。另外，受試者被告知在每個嘗試次中必須要挑選出一台想要購買的筆電，以完成決策。根據實驗一的結果，研究者發現無論在眼動指標或者是生理指標皆有情緒與決策重要性的交互作用。然而因為實驗設計的因素，受試者訊息處理的方式並沒有辦法很清楚的被呈現，並且也沒有發現任何早期訊息的篩選過程。在實驗二中，為更進一步檢驗情緒與決策重要性交互作用的情況，實驗中增加了額外的捷思線索(Heuristic cue)。因為增加線索，在實驗二中，產品的訊息便增加了衝突性以及更能夠區別出不同訊息的特性(有用的與無用的訊息)。實驗二的結果呈現出早期訊息篩選的歷程，並且也顯現出決策的動態過程。早期的情緒與決策重要性的交互作用顯現出，快樂與悲傷的受試者在面對高重要性的決策時，的確會有早期的訊息篩選歷程。而在晚期的歷程中，則顯現出快樂的受試者在面對高重要性決策時，會花比較多的時間再評估對他們而言有用的訊息。另外，面對高重要性決策的悲傷受試者，會比面對低重要性決策的悲傷受試者更快完成決策。文中結果將根據Russo 與Leclerc’s(1994)的階段分析與Isen(1993)跟Forgas(1991)所提出的假設進行更詳盡的討論。 / In the present study, the researchers examined how the emotions influenced the decision process when the participants faced decisions with different importance. The eye movement patterns and psychophysiological effects were observed in four different conditions (high importance/positive; high importance/negative; low importance/positive; low importance/negative). In experiment 1, emotion was manipulated by listening music, and decision importance was manipulated by instruction. SCR, HR (heart rate), and eye movement measurement were recorded. The results showed the interaction of emotion and cognition, both in eye movement and psychophysiologcal effect. However, due to the experiment design, it was hard to tell whether the information was processed analytically or heuristically and no early information selective process revealed. In experiment 2, an additional cue was provided in order to examine the interaction between the emotion and decision importance with more differentiated and conflicting alternatives. The results of experiment 2 revealed the early information selective process and showed dynamic process in decision making. The early emotion and cognition interaction showed the happy and sad emotions with high decision importance did process the information selectively. While in the later interaction, it showed the happy emotions with high decision importance spent more time to evaluate the useful information. Moreover, the sad emotions with high decision importance completed the task faster than those with low decision importance. The results were discussed from Russo and Leclerc’s (1994) stage analysis and hypotheses proposed by Isen (1993) and Forgas’s (1991).

La schizophrénie, pathologie sévère et fréquente, regroupe des entités différentes au sein desquelles la schizophrénie déficitaire a été identifiée. C’est une entité clinique homogène caractérisée par des symptômes négatifs primaires et durables. Une des principales difficultés de la recherche dans la schizophrénie est la mauvaise corrélation entre le phénotype clinique et le génotype. Les nouvelles approches cherchent à identifier des endophénotypes pertinents permettant de déterminer un sous groupe homogène de la schizophrénie. L’objectif de cette thèse était de déterminer les marqueurs de vulnérabilité les plus pertinents pour la schizophrénie : (1) caractériser les anomalies électrophysiologiques dans la schizophrénie, (2) rechercher les perturbations spécifiques des mouvements oculaires dans la schizophrénie déficitaire, (3) mesurer les performances attentionnelles et exécutives, puis identifier des associations entre ces dernières et 6 polymorphismes des gènes COMT et DRD2. Les patients répondant aux critères DSM-IV de la schizophrénie ont été sélectionnés. Ils sont cliniquement stables depuis au moins 28 jours et ne prennent aucun traitement pouvant altérer les mouvements oculaires. Les patients ont été évalués à l’aide de la traduction française de l’échelle de déficit de Kirkpatrick, la PANSS, l’ESRS et le WCST. Les apparentés sains ont passé la version française de la SADS-LA. Les volontaires sains, recrutés dans la population générale, ont passé la Diagnostic Interview Schedule et le WCST. Les mouvements oculaires de l’ensemble des sujets ont été détectés par réflectométrie infrarouge et analysés sur un ordinateur par le logiciel SAMO. Les paradigmes utilisés sont : la poursuite oculaire sinusoïdale, la poursuite oculaire non prédictive, les saccades et les antisaccades. L’onde P50 des potentiels évoqués auditifs a également été étudiée. Nous avons trouvé chez les schizophrènes et dans une moindre mesure chez leurs apparentés une diminution du gain lors de la poursuite oculaire : la dégradation de la prédiction est à l’origine de l’altération des performances de la poursuite oculaire dans la schizophrénie. Chez les patients comparativement aux volontaires sains, une diminution du nombre d’antisaccades réussies et une augmentation de leur latence ont été mises en évidence. Cette dernière est plus importante chez les apparentés sains par rapport aux volontaires sains. L’augmentation de la latence des antisaccades réussies est plus importante chez les schizophrènes déficitaires par rapport aux non déficitaires et elle y est corrélée au nombre d’erreurs persévératives du WCST. Le ratio T/C de l’onde P50 est significativement plus élevé chez les patients comparativement aux volontaires sains. Pour tous les sujets, l’attention a été évaluée à l’aide du test de Stroop Color-Word et du test des réseaux attentionnels ANT. Le fonctionnement exécutif a été étudié avec le test du Wisconsin. Les patients porteurs du génotype de vulnérabilité TT de rs6275 en DRD2 et ceux porteurs du génotype de vulnérabilité CC de rs2242592 en DRD2, ont des performances significativement plus faibles au Stroop-WC par rapport aux non porteurs. Les patients de génotype Val/Val (COMT) font plus d’erreurs persévératives que les patients porteurs de l’allèle Met. Pour rs165599 (COMT), les patients porteurs de l’allèle de vulnérabilité G font plus d’erreurs persévératives que les patients porteurs du génotype AA. La pathologie schizophrénique et des facteurs génétiques interagissent sur le contrôle exécutif de l’attention, principalement sur le Stroop Color-Word et légèrement sur l’ANT. Les polymorphismes du DRD2, rs6275 et rs2242592, augmentent le conflit, tandis que ceux de la COMT n’auraient pas d’action. Concernant le fonctionnement exécutif, l’allèle G de la COMT et la pathologie schizophrénique interagissent ensemble. (...) / Schizophrenia is a complex disorder where the deficit syndrome has been identified as the presence of primary, enduring negative symptoms such as restricted affect, diminished emotional range, poverty of speech, curbing of interest, diminished sense of purpose, diminished social drive. The deficit syndrome is associated with specific neurological and neuropsychological impairments, biochemical characteristics, attentional impairments, structural and functional brain abnormalities. The identification of intermediate phenotypes associated with schizophrenia may improve understanding of the neurobiology of the disease and contribute to the genetic dissection of this disease. Endophenotypes would also be useful for establishing a biological underpinning for diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia. The aim of this work was to determine the most relevant vulnerability markers of schizophrenia: (1) describe electrophysiological abnormalities in schizophrenia, (2) specify eye movements impairments in deficit schizophrenia, (3) assess attentional, executive function and analyze their association with four SNPs in the DRD2/ANKK1 locus (rs6275, rs6277, rs2242592 and rs1800497) and two SNPs in the COMT gene (rs4680 and rs165599). Patients meeting DSM IV criteria for schizophrenia were recruited. They were clinically stabilized for a minimum of 28 days with no change in neuroleptic dose at the time of their participation in the study. None of them was treated with drugs known to affect eye movements. The patients were subtyped into deficit and nondeficit subgroups, using the french translation of the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome. Patients were also assessed using PANSS, ESRS and WCST. Healthy parents of patients were interviewed using the french translation of the SADS-LA. The unrelated healthy controls (no personal or family history of neurological or psychiatric disease, free of any psychotropic treatment) were recruited from the hospital staff and screened by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the WCST. Horizontal eye movements were recorded by an infrared photoelectric limbus eye tracking device. Subjects were tested in five tasks: smooth pursuit, unpredictable pursuit, P50 eventrelated potential, reflexive saccades and antisaccades. Schizophrenia patients and parents had a high prevalence of eye tracking dysfunction: the impaired predictive mechanisms were involved. Both groups showed a high rate of inhibitory deficits measured by the P50 event-related potential and antisaccade paradigms. The latency of successful antisaccades was significantly increased in deficit patients as compared with non-deficit patients and healthy controls. In deficit patients only, we found a significant correlation between the latency of successful antisaccades and the WCST perseverative errors. Patients and healthy controls have performed the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Attention Network Test, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test to assess attention and executive functions. Patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than controls in all cognitive performance. The TT genotype of rs6275 and CC genotype of rs22422592 were associated with a marked deterioration of selective attention (Stroop Color-Word) and this effect is more important in participants with schizophrenia. We showed an interaction between schizophrenia and the genetic effect of rs6275 and rs22422592 on Stroop-PI, but the effect of the disease appears to be more prominent. The COMT Val/Val genotype and schizophrenia were associated with increased number of perseverative errors. Schizophrenia and genetics interact on the executive control of attention, mostly on Stroop-PI and slightly on ANT. Rs6275 and rs2242592 of the DRD2 increased the conflict while COMT SNPs do not. Regarding executive cognition, the COMT and schizophrenia also interact. (...)

The goal of our study is to analyze how young adults in the ages of 20-23 observe digital newspapers. Our main research question is: Are the visual parts of the news site more important than text for young adults? Our second research question is: How do young adult users switch between visual and text elements? Finally, the last question is: What is it that attracts users into reading an article on an online newspaper? To achieve our goal we used a method called eye-tracking which is a process of recording a person’s eye movements using a infrared camera and a computer program processes that converts the data into visual form. Additionally we have also done short interviews before and after the eye-tracking study as a supplement. A total of seven people participated in our study, three men and four women. After the initial interview, the test subject got to freely browse Sweden’s most popular digital newspaper Aftonbladet.se for the duration of five minutes. Afterwards, every person would have another short interview about their experiences of the site. Our study shows that young adults say that they don’t consider the visual elements to be as important as written text. However, the physical test data shows that the visual elements are in most cases observed before written text. Despite that, the users still spent more time on reading the text as opposed to looking at the photos or other visual elements. It’s hard to specify definitive reading habits, but we can see a pattern that the users tend to switch back and forth between visual and text objects.

Research shows that emotional items are associated with enhanced processing and memory. However, emotional memories are composed of not only memory for the specific emotion-eliciting item, but also other items associated with it, as well as memory for how these items are related. The current thesis utilized verbal report, eye movement monitoring and magnetoencephalography in order to examine how emotions may influence online processing and memory for associated information. It was found that while emotions influenced attention to both the emotion-eliciting item and associated information during the encoding stage, this was not related to subsequent memory performance as indexed by verbal report. It was also found that while emotions impaired detailed memory for associated information, it did not affect the ease or speed at which those memories could be accessed. In using MEG, it was found that emotions may modulate not only how participants’ view associated information, but it may also modulate the type of representation formed. Together, findings from the current work suggests that: (1) emotions influence online processing and memory for associated information; (2) emotions modulate memory for associated information via routes other than overt attention; (3) encoding and retrieval may occur in stages; and (4) memory exerts early influences on processing. The current work shows that emotions modulate online processing of associated neutral information in a top-down manner, independent of differences in its physical properties. Work from this thesis encourages a reconceptualization of emotion, memory and perception and how they relate to one and another. Rather than viewing them as independent modular processes, they may, in fact, be more widely distributed in the brain and interact more closely than previously described. This may be evolutionarily adaptive allowing us to quickly and efficiently form memories for emotional events/scenes that can later guide perception and behaviour.

Research shows that emotional items are associated with enhanced processing and memory. However, emotional memories are composed of not only memory for the specific emotion-eliciting item, but also other items associated with it, as well as memory for how these items are related. The current thesis utilized verbal report, eye movement monitoring and magnetoencephalography in order to examine how emotions may influence online processing and memory for associated information. It was found that while emotions influenced attention to both the emotion-eliciting item and associated information during the encoding stage, this was not related to subsequent memory performance as indexed by verbal report. It was also found that while emotions impaired detailed memory for associated information, it did not affect the ease or speed at which those memories could be accessed. In using MEG, it was found that emotions may modulate not only how participants’ view associated information, but it may also modulate the type of representation formed. Together, findings from the current work suggests that: (1) emotions influence online processing and memory for associated information; (2) emotions modulate memory for associated information via routes other than overt attention; (3) encoding and retrieval may occur in stages; and (4) memory exerts early influences on processing. The current work shows that emotions modulate online processing of associated neutral information in a top-down manner, independent of differences in its physical properties. Work from this thesis encourages a reconceptualization of emotion, memory and perception and how they relate to one and another. Rather than viewing them as independent modular processes, they may, in fact, be more widely distributed in the brain and interact more closely than previously described. This may be evolutionarily adaptive allowing us to quickly and efficiently form memories for emotional events/scenes that can later guide perception and behaviour.