The Effects of High and Low Arousal on Memory Consolidation

Empirical evidence shows that physiological or psychological arousal can influence memory performance. Methodological differences, such as different memory tasks, make it difficult to determine how these processes work. Therefore, in this study we investigate how heightened and lowered arousal affect memory of the same stimuli. We compared the effects of heightened and lowered arousal with a control condition on memory consolidation. In a mixed-factor design, participants (N=100) took part in three experimental conditions. Following a visual word/picture memorisation task, participants either immersed their left hand in an ice-bucket for 3 minutes (Heightened arousal), listened to a guided meditation for 5 minutes (Lowered arousal), or went directly to the retention interval (Control). Subsequently they attended two testing sessions, 35 minutes following encoding and one week later. Our results showed that performance of the participants in the heightened arousal condition was significantly better than control on both testing sessions, and that lowered arousal condition was significantly better than the Control in the second testing session. These results contribute towards arousal on memory consolidation and point towards possible mechanisms involved in this process.