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How Emotion Influences the Details Recalled in Autobiographical Memory

A wealth of research suggests that emotion enhances memory. Yet, this enhancement is not uniform. The present study examined the effects of emotion on mnemonic detail production for real-world, autobiographical memories. Building on the theoretical notion that emotion enhances memory for sensory/perceptual details, we hypothesized that emotional events would contain more perceptually-related details than neutral events. We administered the Autobiographical Interview, a semi-structured protocol that parses autobiographical memory details into specific categories (event, perceptual, emotion/thoughts, place, time), to 56 participants. Participants recalled memories that were positive, negative, and neutral from recent (≲3 months old) and remote (~1-5 years old) time periods, with the resulting narratives classified into categories. Recollection of perceptual details did not differ for emotional versus neutral memories at either retention interval. However, emotion affected memory for other detail types, contingent on time period. Our findings further enrich our understanding of the nuance of emotional memory.