The article Emotional Learning Selectively and Retroactively Strengthens Memories for Related Events written by J. E. Dunsmoor, V. P. Murty, L. Davachi, and E. A. Phelps is about research on long-term memory and the way humans are able to connect irrelevant details from the past, to significant moments in the future. Their goal was to provide evidence of a generalized retroactive memory enhancement in humans that is selective to information conceptually related to a future emotional event. To do this, researchers conducted experiments in three different phases. Phase 1 subjects had to classify 60 basic-level animals and tools. In Phase 2, electric shock electrodes were attached with 30 images from one category with another 30 from an unpaired category. In the final phase, the subjects had to classify another 30 images without the electric shock electrodes. Data was gathered right after the experiment, 6 hours after, and 24 hours after. ANOVA’s and t-tests were used to find any correlations. Results showed that weak memories from the pre-conditioning session were strengthened when related information acquired emotional relevance. It was also shown that fear-conditioning memory enhancement emerged by hour 6, therefore concluding that it was not dependent on sleep consolidation. Lastly, results showed that data that was gathered later (hours 6 and24) had significantly greater memory for conditioned stimulus during pre-conditioning compared to that of data gathered immediately after.

For this research, the topic was long-term memory with emotional attachments and the research question was to ask if emotional learning selectively and retroactively strengthened memories for related events. To answer this question, the researchers needed acts, behaviors, and events to determine whether or not the different stages had any effect on their ability to recall certain things from their memory. To gather this data, researchers used detached observation, and to analyze it, the conducted ANOVA’s and t-tests to find any significance between emotional related events and weak/strong memories.

Overall, I thought this research was well carried out and interesting to read about. For further research, I think it would be intriguing to see if different types of emotions, such as negative or positive ones, could recall different types of weak memories from the past.

Dunsmoor, Joseph E., Vishnu P. Murty, Lila Davachi, and Elizabeth A. Phelps. “Emotional learning selectively and retroactively strengthens memories for related events.” Nature 520.7547 (2015): 345-48. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.