Enhanced memory for negative scripted material in low compared
to high sensation seekers
abstract
Individuals with high vs. low sensation seeking respond to and remember emotional events in different
ways. The present study investigates how high vs. low sensation seekers differ in memory performance
for emotional events. Participants were presented with a series of pictures depicting everyday events, some
of which had an emotional outcome, and subsequently administered a recognition task. Results showed
that high vs. low sensation seekers differed in memory performance for episodes with negative outcome,
such that performance was better in low sensation seekers. It is suggested that heightened aversion
reactions to negative stimuli may improve memory for scripted episodes in low sensation seekers, while
high sensation seekers may be motivated to avoid consideration of events that had a negative outcome.
1. Introduction
Zuckerman defined Sensation Seeking (SS) as ‘‘a human trait characterized by the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experience, and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience’’ (Zuckerman, 1990; p.313). Zuckerman (1990) argued that differences in SS trait may have emerged from an evolutionary trade-off between two extremes,with high SS being beneficial for the increased chances of accessing resources and mates, but at the same time being detrimental for the increased engagement in risky activities; low SS, on the other hand, would be beneficial for avoiding risks in hazardous environments,but at the cost of losing chances to access resources. Sensation Seeking has received great attention because of its relationship with a range of risky behaviours associated with morbidity and mortality especially during adolescence, including risky driving,risky sexual behaviours, substance abuse, and even suicide attempts (Ortin, Lake, Kleinmann, & Gould, 2012; Zuckerman, 2007). In order to prevent and treat risk behaviour associated with high SS, it is important to understand which behavioural mecha- nisms and cognitive representations underlie this trait. Specific biases in decision making, reactivity to emotional and arousing stimuli, and memory, have been associated to SS. For example, a bias in cost-benefit judgment was found to mediate the relation- ship between SS and risk behaviour, such that high sensation seekers weight the benefits of taking risks higher than its costs (Maslowsky, Buvinger, Keating, Steinberg, & Cauffman, 2011).
Psychophysiological indexes also showed reduced aversive response to negative stimuli and less apprehensive reactivity to unpredictable negative events in high sensation seekers (Lissek et al., 2005). Overall, high sensation seekers are characterized by stronger approach reaction to novel and intense stimuli and by reduced defensive reactions to aversive stimuli, while low sensation seekers are characterized by strong defensive reactions and longer autonomic activation to aversive stimuli, as measured using the skin conductance response, a psychophysiological index of autonomic nervous system (Zuckerman, 1990). Different patterns of reactivity may underlie differences in paying attention to, processing, and remembering different types of siimuli. An important line of research on the effectiveness of antidrug messages and other public announcements against risk behaviour in adolescents and young adults found that messages perceived as more novel, dramatic and intense (i.e., high in sensation value) received more attention, deeper processing and better recall
by high SS individuals (e.g., Everett & Palm green, 1995; Stephenson,2003). However, it is possible that the personal involvement in the specific contents shown in these studies (e.g., risky driving or sub- stance use) mediated the relationship between SS trait and cognitive processing of different types of material. Therefore it is also important to investigate how, more in general, high and low sensation seekers remember emotional stimuli and emotionally charged
everyday events. To our knowledge the only evidence available on this respect has been offered by Lawson, Gauer, and Hurst (2012),who recently investigated how SS impacts recognition memory for high and low arousal images with negative valence. They found that low sensation seekers were more accurate in establishing old new status of highly arousing negative pictures compared to high sensation seekers. They argued that this difference could be related to strong defensive reactions to aversive stimuli in low sensation seekers, as also supported by longer reaction times to negative arousing pictures (Lawson et al., 2012). This result suggests that high sensation seekers may represent an important exception to the observation that negative information is better remembered than neutral or positive one (Kensinger & Schacter, 2006). In fact, there is evidence that arousing content, especially when negative, is better remembered than non-arousing content by normal participants, and actually improves reality monitoring (Kensinger & Schacter, 2006; Mirandola, Toffalini, Grassano, Cornoldi, & Melinder, 2014). However, if high sensation seekers are less reactive to aversive stimuli, it is possible that such memory advantage could not be found in these individuals. In the present study we used a recently developed paradigm based on pictorial scripted material to investigate recognition memory for positive, negative, and neutral everyday events in high vs. low sensation seekers. The paradigm consists of the presentation of a sequence of pictures that depict nine everyday episodes (i.e.,waking up in the morning, dating/meeting a friend, etc.), each of which may result in either a positive, negative, or neutral outcome;a subsequent recognition test on pictures that were or were not presented allows to examine memory performance and memory errors (Mirandola et al., 2014; Toffalini, Mirandola, Coli, & Cornoldi, 2015). In the present study, the series of episodes was presented to high vs. low sensation seekers for incidental encoding. The valence of each episode was counterbalanced across participants. The ability to discriminate old-new pictures from the three types of episodes was tested during a later surprise recognition test.
The mean proportions of causal errors (i.e., false recognitions of the not seen antecedent of the outcome in each episode) were also calculated. In this way, memory for emotional events was tested through pictures that were not emotional per se, but that were associated with different emotional outcomes. We predicted that low sensation seekers would have more accurate memory than high sensation seekers for episodes which were associated with negative arousing outcomes, due to their enhanced reactivity to aversive stimuli. As the paradigm offered the opportunity of examining the occurrence of causal memory errors (which were found to be particularly sensitive to valence manipulation in previous research; e.g., Toffalini, Mirandola,Drabik, Melinder, & Cornoldi, 2014), we examined whether high sensation seekers would incur more causal false memories related to positive events due to the fact of preferentially attending positive arousing events, in a way that would parallel the increased occurrence of negative false memories that was found in individuals with anxious traits (Toffalini et al., 2015).
หน่วยความจำเพิ่มขึ้นสำหรับวัสดุลบสคริปต์ที่ต่ำเมื่อเทียบเพื่อผู้ที่รักความรู้สึกสูงบทคัดย่อบุคคลที่ มีสูงเทียบกับรู้สึกต่ำไม่ตอบ และจำเหตุการณ์อารมณ์ในต่างวิธีการ การศึกษาปัจจุบันตรวจสอบเทียบกับต่ำความรู้สึกกำลังแตกต่างประสิทธิภาพการทำงานของหน่วยความจำสำหรับเหตุการณ์อารมณ์ ผู้เรียนได้นำเสนอชุดของรูปภาพที่แสดงเหตุการณ์ประจำวัน บางซึ่งมีผลทางอารมณ์ และดูแลงานการรับรู้ในเวลาต่อมา ผลลัพธ์ที่แสดงให้เห็นว่าที่สูงเทียบกับกำลังต่ำรู้สึกแตกต่างในประสิทธิภาพการทำงานหน่วยความจำสำหรับตอนกับผลลบให้ประสิทธิภาพดีกว่าในกำลังรู้สึกต่ำ แนะนำที่แถลงการณ์ aversionปฏิกิริยาเพื่อลบสิ่งเร้าอาจเพิ่มหน่วยความจำสำหรับสคริปต์ตอนที่กำลังรู้สึกต่ำ ในขณะที่กำลังรู้สึกสูงอาจเป็นแรงจูงใจเพื่อหลีกเลี่ยงการพิจารณาเหตุการณ์ที่มีผลลบ1. บทนำZuckerman defined Sensation Seeking (SS) as ‘‘a human trait characterized by the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experience, and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience’’ (Zuckerman, 1990; p.313). Zuckerman (1990) argued that differences in SS trait may have emerged from an evolutionary trade-off between two extremes,with high SS being beneficial for the increased chances of accessing resources and mates, but at the same time being detrimental for the increased engagement in risky activities; low SS, on the other hand, would be beneficial for avoiding risks in hazardous environments,but at the cost of losing chances to access resources. Sensation Seeking has received great attention because of its relationship with a range of risky behaviours associated with morbidity and mortality especially during adolescence, including risky driving,risky sexual behaviours, substance abuse, and even suicide attempts (Ortin, Lake, Kleinmann, & Gould, 2012; Zuckerman, 2007). In order to prevent and treat risk behaviour associated with high SS, it is important to understand which behavioural mecha- nisms and cognitive representations underlie this trait. Specific biases in decision making, reactivity to emotional and arousing stimuli, and memory, have been associated to SS. For example, a bias in cost-benefit judgment was found to mediate the relation- ship between SS and risk behaviour, such that high sensation seekers weight the benefits of taking risks higher than its costs (Maslowsky, Buvinger, Keating, Steinberg, & Cauffman, 2011).Psychophysiological indexes also showed reduced aversive response to negative stimuli and less apprehensive reactivity to unpredictable negative events in high sensation seekers (Lissek et al., 2005). Overall, high sensation seekers are characterized by stronger approach reaction to novel and intense stimuli and by reduced defensive reactions to aversive stimuli, while low sensation seekers are characterized by strong defensive reactions and longer autonomic activation to aversive stimuli, as measured using the skin conductance response, a psychophysiological index of autonomic nervous system (Zuckerman, 1990). Different patterns of reactivity may underlie differences in paying attention to, processing, and remembering different types of siimuli. An important line of research on the effectiveness of antidrug messages and other public announcements against risk behaviour in adolescents and young adults found that messages perceived as more novel, dramatic and intense (i.e., high in sensation value) received more attention, deeper processing and better recallby high SS individuals (e.g., Everett & Palm green, 1995; Stephenson,2003). However, it is possible that the personal involvement in the specific contents shown in these studies (e.g., risky driving or sub- stance use) mediated the relationship between SS trait and cognitive processing of different types of material. Therefore it is also important to investigate how, more in general, high and low sensation seekers remember emotional stimuli and emotionally chargedeveryday events. To our knowledge the only evidence available on this respect has been offered by Lawson, Gauer, and Hurst (2012),who recently investigated how SS impacts recognition memory for high and low arousal images with negative valence. They found that low sensation seekers were more accurate in establishing old new status of highly arousing negative pictures compared to high sensation seekers. They argued that this difference could be related to strong defensive reactions to aversive stimuli in low sensation seekers, as also supported by longer reaction times to negative arousing pictures (Lawson et al., 2012). This result suggests that high sensation seekers may represent an important exception to the observation that negative information is better remembered than neutral or positive one (Kensinger & Schacter, 2006). In fact, there is evidence that arousing content, especially when negative, is better remembered than non-arousing content by normal participants, and actually improves reality monitoring (Kensinger & Schacter, 2006; Mirandola, Toffalini, Grassano, Cornoldi, & Melinder, 2014). However, if high sensation seekers are less reactive to aversive stimuli, it is possible that such memory advantage could not be found in these individuals. In the present study we used a recently developed paradigm based on pictorial scripted material to investigate recognition memory for positive, negative, and neutral everyday events in high vs. low sensation seekers. The paradigm consists of the presentation of a sequence of pictures that depict nine everyday episodes (i.e.,waking up in the morning, dating/meeting a friend, etc.), each of which may result in either a positive, negative, or neutral outcome;a subsequent recognition test on pictures that were or were not presented allows to examine memory performance and memory errors (Mirandola et al., 2014; Toffalini, Mirandola, Coli, & Cornoldi, 2015). In the present study, the series of episodes was presented to high vs. low sensation seekers for incidental encoding. The valence of each episode was counterbalanced across participants. The ability to discriminate old-new pictures from the three types of episodes was tested during a later surprise recognition test.The mean proportions of causal errors (i.e., false recognitions of the not seen antecedent of the outcome in each episode) were also calculated. In this way, memory for emotional events was tested through pictures that were not emotional per se, but that were associated with different emotional outcomes. We predicted that low sensation seekers would have more accurate memory than high sensation seekers for episodes which were associated with negative arousing outcomes, due to their enhanced reactivity to aversive stimuli. As the paradigm offered the opportunity of examining the occurrence of causal memory errors (which were found to be particularly sensitive to valence manipulation in previous research; e.g., Toffalini, Mirandola,Drabik, Melinder, & Cornoldi, 2014), we examined whether high sensation seekers would incur more causal false memories related to positive events due to the fact of preferentially attending positive arousing events, in a way that would parallel the increased occurrence of negative false memories that was found in individuals with anxious traits (Toffalini et al., 2015).
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