How our brains make the most of recalling bad memories

SMALL PRINT:CAN NEGATIVE emotions help memory? It seems they can, under certain circumstances, according to a new study published in Psychological Science.

Researchers asked students to study lists of Swahili words and their translations into English, then the students were asked to recall the meanings.

After each correct answer, the students were shown a negative image, a neutral picture or a blank screen. When that first test was over, they did a quick multiplication exercise, then the students were quizzed again on the Swahili- English items.

And who did best second time around?

The students who had seen the negative images after successfully retrieving the information during the first test.

“Memory is labile and dynamic – after you retrieve something, you’re still engaged in processing that information in some way,” explains co-author Dr Bridgid Finn from Washington University in St Louis.

“Having a picture of a gun pointed at you just after you’ve just been tested on something probably isn’t the best situation for learning, but because there is an intricate relationship between areas involved in emotion and remembering – the amygdala and the hippocampus – we find that the negative picture can enhance later retention.”

Studies are ongoing that use positive images, but the preliminary data suggest they don’t have the same impact on retrieval or retention.

“Positive content, so far, doesn’t seem to be doing the trick,” says Finn.