Emotional Context Impact on Episodic Memory

Overseen By Erin Sibley

Age: 18 - 65

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: Boston College

Must not be taking: Psychotropic drugs

Disqualifiers: Psychiatric, Neurological, Pregnancy, others

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 3

What You Need to Know Before You Apply

What is the purpose of this trial?

This trial aims to understand how emotions affect memories over time. Researchers seek to determine how different emotional experiences can alter or confuse memories. Participants will join either online or in-person, with in-person sessions including brain scans. The study seeks fluent English speakers without a history of psychiatric or neurological conditions.

As an unphased study, this trial offers a unique opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking research on the connection between emotions and memory.

Will I have to stop taking my current medications?

If you are currently using psychotropic drugs (medications that affect your mind, emotions, or behavior), you cannot participate in this trial.

What prior data suggests that this experimental paradigm is safe?

Research has shown that exploring feelings connected to memories can be done safely without physical risk to participants. Emotional memories are those linked to feelings like happiness or fear. A large study with 180 participants examined how revisiting these memories can change how people remember them and found no safety issues or physical harm to participants.

In the current trial, researchers are testing how different emotions affect memory by showing word pairs with images that have positive, negative, or neutral emotional meanings. Since the study uses emotional contexts and words instead of drugs or medical procedures, it is considered safe. Participants might experience different emotions, but no physical side effects are expected. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

Why are researchers excited about this trial?

Researchers are excited about the Emotional Context Similarity treatment because it offers a novel way to enhance episodic memory by leveraging emotional context. Unlike typical memory aids or cognitive training programs, this approach uses images with different emotional valences—positive, negative, or neutral—to help participants remember word pairs more effectively. By focusing on emotional memory updating, this method could lead to personalized memory enhancement strategies, making it a unique and promising avenue in cognitive health.

What evidence suggests that this emotional context similarity treatment is effective for memory?

Research shows that emotions can affect memory. In this trial, participants will engage in an emotional memory updating paradigm to explore this effect. One study found that emotions act as strong reminders, making it easier to recall emotional experiences. Another study discovered that emotions group memories based on feelings at the time, allowing us to remember events that evoked similar emotions. Additionally, changing emotions, such as those experienced when listening to music, can influence memory organization. These findings suggest that emotions might enhance memory recall and organization. ^{6 7 8 9 10}

Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?

This trial is for individuals fluent in English who can follow the study protocol. Online participants need an account on a specified crowdsourcing platform. Those with psychiatric or neurological conditions, current psychotropic drug use, or specific issues that preclude MRI scans (like metal in the body) cannot participate.

Inclusion Criteria

All participants must be willing and able to follow the protocol

Online participants must have an online account in the crowdsourcing platform that will be used (e.g., Prolific)

All participants must be fluent in English

Exclusion Criteria

I have a history of mental health or neurological conditions, or I'm currently using medication for these issues.

fMRI participants who are pregnant, have metal in the body (including piercings or metallic makeup if unwilling to remove), unable to lie still for the duration of the scan (e.g., due to pain), have Meniere's disease, claustrophobia, or other contraindication for MRI as determined by the MRI technician, or are left-handed

Timeline for a Trial Participant

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

1 week

Encoding Session 1

Participants encode AB neutral word pairs with images and complete a retrieval task until 90% accuracy is achieved.

1 day

1 visit (in-person or online)

Encoding Session 2

Participants encode new AC word pairs with images and complete a memory test until 90% accuracy is achieved.

1 day

1 visit (in-person or online)

Retrieval Session

Participants recall word associates from both encoding sessions and report the day and valence of the paired images.

1 day

1 visit (in-person or online)

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for any additional data collection or analysis needs post-study.

1 week

What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?

Interventions

• Emotional Context Similarity

Trial Overview The study aims to understand how emotional memories affect each other over time using two encoding sessions and one retrieval session. Participants will either join online or in-person; the latter includes brain imaging during encoding sessions.

How Is the Trial Designed?

Group I: Emotional memory updating paradigm Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

All participants will encode AB/AC word pairs shown with images that have differing emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral)

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

Boston College

Lead Sponsor

Trials

40

Recruited

49,300+

Citations

1. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8641128/

Exploring the Facets of Emotional Episodic Memory Results showed that emotion enhanced and impaired memory, respectively, for “what” and “which.” Unexpectedly, emotion was associated with enhanced accuracy for ...

2. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4547905/

Recall dynamics reveal the retrieval of emotional context The presence of emotion in context would both provide a stronger retrieval cue, enhancing memory of emotional items, as well as lead to emotional clustering, ...

3. nature.com nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42241-2

Dynamic emotional states shape the episodic structure of ... Our results demonstrate that memory is organized around emotional states. While listening to music, fluctuations between different emotional valences bias ...

4. tandfonline.com tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09658211.2024.2406307?ai=2m6&mi=m9asqt&af=R

The influence of event similarity on the detailed recall of ... Memories for life events are thought to be organised based on their relationships with one another, affecting the order in which events are recalled such ...

5. sciencedirect.com sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925001727

Understanding episodic memory dynamics: Retrieval and ... This study investigates brain mechanisms in memory preservation and alteration using a three-phase design: memory encoding (Day 1), interference under fMRI ( ...

6. sciencedirect.com sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301051124001364

Evidence for a role of reduced semantic organization Research into the effects of acute anxiety on episodic memory has produced inconsistent findings, particularly for threat-neutral information.

7. arxiv.org arxiv.org/html/2501.11739v1

Episodic memory in ai agents poses risks that should be ... For example, episodic memories could allow an agent to learn regularities in the timing or content of safety audits which might be performed ...

8. memory.psych.upenn.edu memory.psych.upenn.edu/files/pubs/CoheKaha22.pdf

A Memory-Based Theory of Emotional Disorders For example, memory re- searchers used computational models to develop the theory that associations between events and their contexts guide recall in human.

9. researchgate.net researchgate.net/publication/374811735_Context_reexposure_to_bolster_contextual_dependency_of_emotional_episodic_memory

Context reexposure to bolster contextual dependency of ... Here, we therefore assessed in a large-scale study (N = 180) whether context reexposure enhances contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory whereas ...

10. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10584942/

Context reexposure to bolster contextual dependency of ... We therefore assessed in a large-scale study (N = 180) whether context reexposure enhances contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory.