Emotional information is commonly assumed to be recognized more
accurately than neutral information. While emotionality enhances
recognition accuracy, it also induces a more liberal response bias. In this
study, the effects of arousal and valence axes of emotion on recognition
memory accuracy and liberal bias were examined in young and older
adults, for emotional words. For this purpose, memory was assessed
with a surprise old/new recognition task, based on Signal Detection
Theory. There are also some factors regarding words that influence
visual word recognition. One is the dissociation between consonants
and vowels / consonants and vowels are processed differently. In the
study session, the participants were instructed to count vowels within a word under incidental encoding. Since vowels
constrain lexical selection less tightly than consonants, deciding how
many vowels each word contained is compatible with the idea that the
vowels should be processed faster. The results of the recognition session
showed that young adults recognized more accurately as compared to
older adults, replicating the age effect. Valence differences of words also
showed a significant effect on memory performance, that is positive
words were recognized better in both groups. On the other hand, it was
observed that there was a significant bias to respond as &lsquo / old&rsquo / only to
positive words in older group / whereas young adults showed a liberal
bias to negative words. This age-related difference suggested that older
adults regulated their emotion in favour of maintaining well-being, even
incidentally. Considering individual differences and mood state in
emotional word processing is essential so personality traits and current
mood states were assessed by commonly used Five Factor Personality
Inventory and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule respectively.
Except &lsquo / openness to experience&rsquo / , other personality dimensions did not
predict recognition memory performance for emotional words.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615657/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| Creators | Kaynak, Hande |
| Contributors | Gokcay, Didem |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Ph.D. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | Access forbidden for 1 year |
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