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Temporal memory for threatening events encoded in a haunted house
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Temporal memory for threatening events encoded in a haunted house

Katelyn G. Cliver, David F. Gregory, Steven A. Martinez, William J. Mitchell, Joanne E. Stasiak, Samantha S. Reisman, Chelsea Helion and Vishnu P. Murty
Cognition and emotion, v 39(1), pp 65-81
Feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2338962
PMID: 38625561

Abstract

Psychology, Experimental Psychology Social Sciences
Despite the salient experience of encoding threatening events, these memories are prone to distortions and often non-veridical from encoding to recall. Further, threat has been shown to preferentially disrupt the binding of event details and enhance goal-relevant information. While extensive work has characterised distinctive features of emotional memory, research has not fully explored the influence threat has on temporal memory, a process putatively supported by the binding of event details into a temporal context. Two primary competing hypotheses have been proposed; that threat can impair or enhance temporal memory. We analysed two datasets to assess temporal memory for an in-person haunted house experience. In study 1, we examined the temporal structure of memory by characterising memory contiguity in free recall as a function of individual levels of heart rate as a proxy of threat. In study 2, we replicated marginal findings of threat-related increases in memory contiguity found in study 1. We extended these findings by showing threat-related increases in recency discriminations, an explicit test of temporal memory. Together, these findings demonstrate that threat enhances temporal memory regarding free recall structure and during explicit memory judgments.

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