Drawing Enhances Memory for Emotional Words

Public Significance Statement The use of drawing as an encoding technique has been previously shown to benefit later recall of neutral information. Emotional relative to neutral materials are also known to be more memorable. The present study showcases the generalizability of drawing as an effective encoding technique that can further augment memory for emotional material. Past work has demonstrated that drawing a sketch, compared to writing during encoding, improves memory of to-be-remembered words, pictures, and academic terms. We examined whether this benefit extended to emotional materials. In Experiment 1, negative, positive, and neutral words were presented in an encoding phase, with intermixed prompts to either write out or draw a picture representing the word. Participants later freely recalled words by writing them out. Recall was higher for words drawn than for words written at encoding, and the magnitude of the benefit was differentially enhanced for emotional compared to neutral words. In Experiment 2, negative, positive, and neutral words were again presented but encoding type was compared using pure lists between participants. The pattern of memory performance replicated that observed in Experiment 1. Further, the use of drawing as an encoding technique interacted with emotionality, whereby emotional words that were drawn were best remembered. Our results demonstrate that the memory benefit conferred by drawing at encoding extends to emotional materials. Our findings suggest that the use of drawing as an encoding strategy, and the emotionality of the stimulus itself, contributes independently to enhance retention.