Previous research on emotional memory has consistently shown that memory performance for stimuli associated with positive and negative emotions (i.e., emotional memory) is superior to memory performance for non-emotional memories. However, research focusing on differences in memory performance between emotional memories, such as memories associated with positive and negative emotions, has not obtained consistent results. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate whether differences in recall performance occurred between such opposing emotional memories. The investigation was conducted using Google Form among 32 undergraduates (23 women, and 2 nonrespondents) from Department of Psychology and Humanities at Edogawa University. In this study, we used originally created fictional episodes as stimulus sentences (scenarios) to examine differences in recall performance based on emotional valence (positive vs. negative). In addition, we examined the influence of intrapersonal factors (introversion and trait anxiety) on recall performance. The results showed that the higher trait anxiety, the higher recall performance tended to be. Furthermore, recall performance for a certain item tended to be significantly higher in negative condition. This may have been related to a phenomenon similar to the attentional bias seen in anxious patients. In other words, this result can be interpreted as an attentional bias directed toward the scenario itself, regardless of emotional valence. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the scenarios and recall tasks used, and further examine the differences in recall performance between opposing emotional memories.
Tomofumi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.