Sensation Seeking Influences on Memory: A Psychophysiological Approach

Sensation seeking is a personality trait that has received considerable interest from applied researchers because it can identify people who are more likely to engage in high risk behaviors including illegal drug use. The use of highly arousing content in antidrug campaigns has been shown to increase attention and recall for high sensation seekers, resulting in lowered drug use. One type of memory that may be enhanced by arousal is source memory, that reflects strong memories that include contextual details like when and where the memory was formed. In this study, we examined high and low sensation seekers’ source memory of images that were high and low in arousal. Forty undergraduate participants from EKU completed a questionnaire measuring sensation seeking. Participants then performed a study task during which they rated the pleasantness of forty images with positive valance (20 high arousal and 20 low arousal). Participants then completed a memory task including 40 studied and 40 new images while Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) was being measured. For each image reported as studied, participants were asked to recall the lighting condition of the room (source memory) and respond to how confident they felt in that answer. We hypothesized that high and low sensation seekers’ would differ in their source memory. Our results confirmed our hypothesis by showing sensation seeking group differences to both high arousal and low arousal images. These results support the continued use of materials tailored for high sensation seekers to enhance memory in antidrug campaigns