How Emotions Help Recall Information, New York University Study

We may often find ourselves remembering certain emotional or traumatic events with more color and accuracy than ordinary and mundane day-to-day events. For example, you’re more likely to remember the environment of a first date than the type of cat food you poured into Fluffy’s dish on Wednesday night, the third type of beer you drank at happy hour last week, or what pair of socks you wore yesterday.

It turns out that emotions have a significant impact on how well we process and remember information. According to a new study, our brains are more likely to be able to retrieve memories if we link them with feelings. The authors of the study, Joseph Dunsmoor and Vishnu Murty of the Psychology Department at New York University, write in The Conversation that such trivial events in life can become not-so-trivial in our minds if we experienced either a positive or negative emotion along with them.

Hey, check out all the research scientist jobs. Post your resume today!

Back to news