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Annotated Bibliography

How Does Emotion Affect Memory?

Kyle McDonald
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
3/1/16

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Annotated Bibliography
Buchanan, Tony W. "Retrieval of Emotional Memories." Psychological Bulletin. U.S.
National Library of Medicine, Sept. 2007. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
This article examines the retrieval of emotional memories. It uses books and other
articles to support its claims. The research suggests that the amygdala, in combination
with the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, plays an important role in the retrieval of
memories for emotional events. Amygdala is present during emotional situations and
causes an emotion to be associated with the memory. The article cites multiple books in
order to support this statement. I will be able to use it in my paper when talking about
what parts of the brain control memory and emotion.
"Emotional Memory." Breakthrough Learning. Breakthrough Learning, 16 May 2013.
Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This article uses fewer sources to back up its statements, and seems to generalize.
Its not filled with a bunch of scientific words that I dont know the meaning of, so it
is intended for an average reader. The main point the article makes is that the more
emotion involved in a memory whether it is sad or happy, it is easier to remember
it. The article claims that sharing an emotional memory with other people makes it
more powerful. People who have witnessed a terrible accident or a murder will
remember this for the rest of their lives. John Medina, in his book, Brain Rules,
describes how, when he was a child, he watched a plane crash. Medina hurried home
to tell his parents. He called his friends. He talked to investigators. He talked about it
in school. The combination of an extremely emotional event and talking about it,
sharing the experience with others, makes the memory extremely powerful. This

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article will be useful when talking about the strength of a memory impacted by
emotion.
Dingfelder, Sadie F. "Feelings' Sway over Memory." American Psychological
Association, Sept. 2005. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
This article focuses on tunnel memory and memory illusions. This article was based
off of a recent study in Cognition and Emotion (Vol. 18, No. 4, pages 559-574.). The
study found that people in emotionally stressful and intense situations focus on
specific details. (What do you mean by specific details? Such as what they see, feel,
touch etc.)
It stated people experiencing negative emotions tend to focus in on specific details,
while happy people take in a situation more broadly. I will be able to use this article
in my paper when I talk about how emotion impacts stressful memories.
"Research Areas." Emotion Affects Memory's Reliability. National Science Foundation,
28 June 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
This article examines the distortion of memory due to emotion in adults and
children. Multiple sources and studies were used to create the article. In one
particular study scientists were able to find out that the test subjects were able to
remember words associated with emotions, such as hurt easier than other words. I
will be able to use this article when examining the effectiveness of emotion to
remember things.

I feel that when you do the sources that you should go more in depth with the article
so that I can get a little more understanding of what the article is about.