Emotional cue effects on accessing and elaborating upon autobiographical memories

If remembering the past requires a cue to stimulate mental reactivation of an experience (i.e., a memory), then the nature of the retrieval cue should bias how that experience is recalled. Based on the established link between emotion and memory, we tested how two emotional properties of a cue - valence (positive and negative) and arousal (high and low) - influence different phases of autobiographical memory retrieval: searching/accessing an autobiographical episode, and then elaborating on the associated memory representation. Young, healthy participants completed two experimental sessions that were separated by 24 to 48 h. In session one, participants used musical retrieval cues that varied in emotional valence and arousal to access autobiographical memories. Cue-evoked physiological arousal and valence responses were measured via skin conductance and facial electromyography, respectively, as were the reaction times to access each memory. In session two, participants reactivated and then described (elaborated) the details of the memories that were accessed in session one. The resultant descriptions were scored for the number of specific episodic (internal) and non-episodic (external) details. While arousal and valence levels of the retrieval cues, as well as the evoked physiological responses, significantly predicted the reaction time to access a memory, only cue arousal predicted how detailed the representations were constructed. Memories that were initially accessed to high-arousing cues were later described with more episodic details than memories accessed to low-arousing cues. These data provide new insights into how emotional valence and arousal levels of retrieval cues distinctly bias the accessibility and detailed elaboration of autobiographical memories.