When Emotions Inflect Memories: The Effect of Emotional Valence on Self-Derivation Through Memory Integration for Adolescents

Abstract

Self-derivation through memory integration is the process of integrating two or more separate but related episodes into new knowledge. The present study examined how emotional valence influences adolescents' self-derivation in classroom settings across two experiments. In Experiment 1, adolescents (N = 159, M_age = 13.48) viewed emotional video clips aiming to induce different emotional valences (positive, negative, and neutral), followed by a self-derivation through integration task. In Experiment 2, adolescents (N = 454, M_age = 13.49) viewed the emotional video clip at various phases of memory integration (before-learning, between-stem, before-test). A delayed test one week later assessed the retention of self-derived knowledge. Across both experiments, positive emotion most effectively enhanced self-derivation through integration. Specifically, Experiment 2 revealed that inducing positive emotion prior to learning enhanced self-derivation. The overall retention of self-derivation significantly improved after one week. These findings underscore the importance of fostering positive emotional valences before learning to promote adolescents' effective knowledge integration and self-derivation.