Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Kersten, Alan

Abstract

Laney, Campbell, Heuer, and Reisberg (2004) proposed that the preferential recall of central relative to peripheral information in a negative event (known as "memory narrowing") is the product of presenting participants with a visually arousing attention magnet -- not negative emotion, as the Easterbrook ( 1959) hypothesis suggests. Laney et al. used conceptually meaningful (or thematically arousing) events to stimulate an emotional response in participants instead of visual arousal and found evidence that negative arousal improves memory for all categories of details. The current study tested Laney et al. 's theory that a visually arousing stimulus, rather than negative arousal, is responsible for memory nan·owing as well as their position that negative arousal benefits recall of both central and peripheral information. Support was found for both assertions of Laney et al. The presence of a visually salient and emotionally provoking detail produced an effect similar to the traditional memory narrowing pattem and exposure to the negative thematic climax resulted in improved memory performance for all the detail categories. However, this latter effect was observed only for the female participants. No evidence was found to support the Easterbrook hypothesis.

Extent

207 p.

Comments

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.

Identifier

FA00000850

Format

pdf

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