Improving short-term memory: The effects of novelty and emotion

Exposure to a unique stimulus appears to capture attention and enhance later recall. This study was carried out to determine whether a change in the appearance of a focal point from a solid black dot (BD) to a happy face (HF) could enhance short-term memory performance. In particular, this study was designed to determine if this enhancement in memory performance would occur when the focal point stimulus is not an integral part of the material being recalled.

Forty elderly and 40 young participants were administered a short-term memory task that required recalling strings of consonants displayed on a computer screen. Twenty consonant spans were displayed in total, in which a small HF focal point appeared before 6 of the trials and a small BD focal point appeared before 14 of the trials. It was hypothesized that memory performance for the consonant spans would be greater for the trials proceeded by the HF focal point than for the trials proceeded by the BD focal point.

In general, consonant recall performance for the BD and HF trials was similar for the young and elderly. Memory performance on the trials that were proceeded by the HF focal point was enhanced for both groups, as compared to the BD trials. The Elderly were more likely then the Young to say that they were aware of their enhanced memory performance for the consonant span trials that were proceeded by the HF focal point.