The Emotionally Enhanced Memory Effect and the Emotional Carryover Effect Are Almost Impervious to Social Collaboration

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that emotional stimuli are more memorable than neutral ones—a phenomenon known as the emotionally enhanced memory (EEM) effect. This memory benefit, however, is thought to come at the cost of reduced memory for contextual details. Moreover, emotional stimuli can impair memory of adjacent neutral information, giving rise to an emotional carryover effect that typically involves both emotional anterograde and retrograde memory inhibition. Although these effects are well established, it remains unclear whether they also influence source memory and whether they persist in socially collaborative settings. To investigate these questions, we integrated an emotional timeout procedure into the collaborative memory paradigm. Participants were presented with triplets varying in emotionality, each consisting of a neutral word, a modulator word (taboo, non-taboo negative, neutral, or positive), and another neutral word. Following encoding, participants completed three recall sessions (Recalls 1, 2, and 3), each assessing both item and source memory. Recalls 1 and 3 were performed individually, whereas Recall 2 was conducted either individually or collaboratively. The findings carry several theoretical implications. (a) The EEM effect was observed across all recall conditions, but its magnitude was enhanced during and after collaboration, supporting priority-binding theory. Notably, the effect was only for taboo words, suggesting they may hinder memory of other emotional stimuli. (b) The emotional carryover effect manifested differently across item versus source memory—specifically through emotional anterograde and retrograde memory inhibition—lending support to attentive resource allocation theory, the arousal-biased competition model, and the contextual binding model. Importantly, this effect emerged independent of collaborative recall, indicating its robustness across social contexts.