Motor action and emotional memory

Abstract

Can simple motor actions affect how efficiently people retrieve emotional memories, and influence what they choose to remember? In Experiment 1, participants were prompted to retell autobiographical memories with either positive or negative valence, while moving marbles either upward or downward. They retrieved memories faster when the direction of movement was congruent with the valence of the memory (upward for positive, downward for negative memories). Given neutral-valence prompts in Experiment 2, participants retrieved more positive memories when instructed to move marbles up, and more negative memories when instructed to move them down, demonstrating a causal link from motion to emotion. Results suggest that positive and negative life experiences are implicitly associated with schematic representations of upward and downward motion, consistent with theories of metaphorical mental representation. Beyond influencing the efficiency of memory retrieval, the direction of irrelevant, repetitive motor actions can also partly determine the emotional content of the memories people retrieve: moving marbles upward (an ostensibly meaningless action) can cause people to think more positive thoughts.

Figure 1

Schematic drawing of the marble moving apparatus.

Figure 2

Results of Experiment 1. Latency from trial onset to the start of the memory retelling. Participants began telling memories sooner when movement direction and valence were congruent than when they were incongruent. Error bars indicate s.e.m.

Figure 3

Results of Experiment 2. Effect of movement direction on the valence of memories retrieved. Participants recounted positive memories more often during upward movements (left columns), and negative memories more often during downward movements (right columns). Error bars indicate s.e.m.