The role of attention in the emotional enhancement of memory

This thesis looked to answer the current discrepancies in the literature surrounding the involvement of attention in the emotional enhancement of memory effect (EEM). An initial exploration of the research areas of emotion, memory and attention is made. This informed a series of recommendations for the current study series. Using a succession of divided attention experiments, an EEM effect was found for negative images over neutral images in both full and divided attention conditions across all experiments. Despite current literature concluding similar results as evidence for the lack of attentiona! involvement in the EEM effect, the current thesis used regression based mediation analyses to uncover the potential hidden involvement of attention. Consistently a significant partial mediation of emotion's impact on memory via attention was found. These results were complemented by an ERP investigation which demonstrated traditional emotional memory ERP effects such as the emotional enhancement of the subsequent memory effect under both full and divided attention conditions during encoding phases. These findings are explored in relation to the current literature base investigating the possible involvement of attention in the EEM effect, and the wider emotion and memory research field. Discussion is made of other potential mediators in the EEM effect, the value of the EEM for survival, and suggestions are made for further empirical work of emotional memory formation .EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo