Effects of emotion-induced self-focused attention on item and source memory
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Effects of emotion‑induced self‑focused attention on item and source memory Youngbin A. Jeon1,2 · Solange N. Resnik1,3 · Gabriella I. Feder1 · Kyungmi Kim1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Affective states are closely linked to attention to internal aspects of the self (i.e., self-focused attention). We investigated how self-focused attention induced by emotional experiences affects memory for subsequently presented information. Prior to incidental encoding of affectively neutral target words, participants were induced to feel shame or anger through autobiographical recall (vs. no emotion-induction control condition). Memory for words (item memory) and their associated contextual features (source memory) were subsequently assessed. Self-focused attention, measured by the private self-consciousness scale, was highest in the shame condition, followed by the anger and then control conditions. Item memory was significantly impaired in the shame condition compared to both the anger and control conditions, and self-focused attention negatively mediated the effect of emotion condition on memory performance. Source memory did not significantly differ across the emotion conditions, and we discuss possible factors contributing to this null finding. Our findings suggest that emotioninduced self-focused attention may reduce attentional resources available for encoding task-relevant external information. Keywords Emotion · Self-focused attention · Memory · Affect · Attentional focus
Introduction Self-focused attention refers to attention directed toward internal aspects of the self (e.g., thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations) rather than toward aspects of the external environment (Carver and Scheier 1981; Duval and Wicklund 1972). Self-focused attention can have both positive and negative affective and cognitive consequences. For example, although self-focused attention is associated with well-articulated and more accessible self-knowledge (Eichstaedt and Silvia 2003; Nasby 1985), greater correspondence between one’s own self-perceptions and their actual behaviour (Scheier et al. 1978), and increased motivation to perform well on tasks (Duval et al. 1992), a chronically high level of self-focused attention has been linked to low * Kyungmi Kim [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, 207 High Street, Middletown, CT 06459, USA
2
Present Address: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
3
Present Address: College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
self-esteem, general negative affect, and various psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety (Ingram 1990; Mor and Winquist 2002). Past studies evidenced a bidirectional link between selffocused attention and emotional experience whereby selffocused attention intensifies the experience of affective states (Scheier and Carver 1977) while affective states influence the degree of self-focused attenti
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