Effects of level of processing on memory for affectively valenced words

In this study we tested whether subjects remember affectively valenced stimuli better than neutral stimuli when their attention is not focused on the affective charge of the stimuli during encoding. We tested memory for positive, negative, and neutral words in three memory tasks and using two encoding conditions (physical and semantic). Our results show that subjects remember affectively valenced stimuli better than neutral stimuli when they encode them according to their emotional content as well as to other features of the stimuli. However, although both positive and negative words are better remembered than neutral ones when semantically encoded, only positive words are better remembered than neutral ones when physically encoded. These results suggest that the affective charge of a stimulus (especially when positive) can affect retention even when a subject's attention has not focused on it during encoding.