Using Experience Sampling to Investigate Affect at Encoding and Episodic Memory
- Adelaide MacKenzie, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Hyungwook Yim, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
- Benjamin Stone, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Simon Dennis, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
AbstractIntensive longitudinal data was collected through the concurrent use of a passive experience sampling (ES) smartphone application collecting objective measures of experience, and an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) app collecting self-reported affect. After a week-long retention interval, participants completed a memory test generated from paired ES and EMA data. Participants were asked to select the GPS location at the time of a paired target event from four alternatives. Correct retrieval was not predicted by self-reports grouped by negative valence/high arousal or negative valence/low arousal. Positive valence/high arousal reported at encoding predicted greater probability of incorrect responses. Conversely, positive valence/low arousal predicted greater probability of correct identification of target. At retrieval, choice was predicted by dissimilarities in discrete emotions between target and distractors, suggesting the use of affect as a contextual mechanism.