CANLI et al.

 (2000)
AIM:

To demonstrate that images causing high arousal levels will be

remembered better than those that are less emotive. To investigate
whether the amygdala is sensitive to varying degrees of emotional
intensity to external stimuli and find what level of intensity affects
the memory of the stimuli.

• Is the amygdala sensitive to varying degrees of individually

experienced emotional intensity?

• What degree of emotional intensity affects the role of the

amygdala in enhancing memory of emotional stimuli.

BACKGROUND: 

There are two types of medical scans: structural – take detailed

pictures of the brain structure; functional – show the location of
activity in the brain.

The study used an fMRI machine (functional magnetic resonance

imaging) which detects changes in blood flow in the brain to
illustrate how the brain works during different tasks.

The individual is placed in a scanner which sends a magnetic field

and affects the spinning of the hydrogen molecules in the brain and
enables the scan to create a detailed picture of the brain.
The amygdala has been shown to have an association with the
processing of emotion and storing of memory.

LeBar & Phelps (1998) suggested that emotional arousal aids the
process of memory consolidation and therefore emotional
experiences are memorized better.
Canli et al (1999) found strong amygdala activation to resulted in
improved memorization for the causing stimuli. He wanted to
replicate his study with repeated measures design rather than
independent to make sure that the initial results were not due to
chance.

RESEARCH METHOD:

Participants were required to lay in an fMRI scanner, which is a big

and heavy apparatus, therefore the study was conducted in a
laboratory and was a laboratory experiment.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: 

This was a repeated measure design experiment as the participants

were unexpectedly asked to repeat the procedure again three
weeks after.

VARIABLES:

The independent variable can be considered the level of arousal of

each picture shown to the participants.
The dependent variable was the effect that this arousal level had on
the memory of each picture which reflected on the ability of the
participants to recognize the images at a 3 week follow up.

SAMPLE:

Participants were recruited by means of volunteer sampling and

consisted of 10 healthy, right-handed women. Women were chosen
specifically as it was believed that they would be more likely to
show physiological reaction to stimuli.

PROCEDURE:


- Informed consent was collected from the participants and they
were informed about the aim of the experiment.
- While the participants laid in a 1.5 Tesla fMRI scanner, they were
shown 96 pictures with various valence ratings from the
International Affective Picture System, projected over their head and
mirrored for convenient viewing.
- The picture order was randomized and each picture was viewed
for 2.88 seconds, with an interval of 12.96 seconds between two
pictures in during which a fixed crossed was projected.
- The participants had to view the pictures the entire time they
were projected and when the cross appeared, they had to rate
the emotional arousal the picture triggered in them by pressing
one out of four buttons with their right hand;
the buttons ranged from 0 to 3 with 0 being ‘not emotionally
intense at all’ and 3 ‘extremely emotionally intense’.

While the participants were laying in the scanner, the fMRI machine
collected information about the activity in the brain during the
picture viewing.

After 3 weeks, the participants were asked to return to the

laboratory, where they had to undergo an unexpected task.

It consisted of them viewing the same 96 pictures plus 48 additional

foils and asked to judge if the pictures were Forgotten, Familiar or
Remembered.

RESULTS:

There was an appropriate correlation between the subjective

valance rating of the pictures and the valence of the pictures, with
correlational coefficients of -0.66 and 0.68.

Additionally, amygdala activation was also found to correlate with

the emotional intensity reported by the participants – the more
emotionality intense the picture was, the higher the amygdala
activity of the participants while viewing it – perceived arousal is
associated with amygdala activation.
At the follow-up, the emotionally intense pictures were remembered
significantly better.
Pictures rated 0 to 2 had a homogenous distribution of forgotten,
familiar or remembered labels while pictures rated with 3 were more
likely to be labeled as ‘remembered’. For pictures rated a 3, the
amygdala activation could almost always predict correctly the label
the participants would give it at follow up.

CONCLUSION: 

There is an association with the perceived emotional intensity of

stimuli and the memory of it – the higher valance a picture has, the
more likely it is to be remembered.

High levels of arousal can produce more vivid memories. The

amygdala has been found sensitive to emotional intensity,
predominantly the left amygdala’s activity during information
encoding being an indicator for the formation of the memory.

Strengths and Weakness of the Study 

Standardized Environment – Highly controlled – laboratory experiment and –

given same items to rate in each condition – means all variables are under
control and therefore eliminates the risk of an extraneous variable affecting
DV and only IV causing an effect on DV. 

Quantitative Data – fMRI scanner used therefore helps the researcher is able
to gather a vast amount of quantitative data relating to activation of
Amygdala. Moreover, also helps to analyze the data easily and can be used
for further analysis. 

Increases Reliability and Validity – Using of fMRI scanner reduces the

possibility for the participants to respond to Demand Characteristics as it’s
impossible for them to change their answer because the scan is right there.
Therefore increases the reliability and validity of the study. Moreover, as it has
a standardized procedure it allows for replication. Hence, consistent results
which make it highly reliable. 
Standardized Procedure increases internal validity – standardized procedure
– the level of time for each item presented for and the duration of the interval
between presentations. Therefore, the researcher can be more confident that
there are a few confounding variables affecting the variables that are being
measured. 

Informed Consent – Aware of the nature of the experiment – ethically valid 

Confidentiality – The study only mentions that there were 10 right-handed

healthy female there is no more information about them like the age –
ethically valid.

However, 

Low Validity – cannot be generalized – small sample size, no males, no left-

handed females     

Low Ecological Validity - fMRI are unfamiliar environments, therefore, the

participants’ emotional behavior may have been affected the making of the
dependent variable of emotional arousal unrealistic.

Low Validity - the fact that the participants must be emotionally low prior to
the experiment must have affected the results and therefore reduces the
validity. 

Application to real life 

•    It gives a base theory to understand the difficulties in emotional

experiences – especially for those with intense emotional experiences who
have a damaged amygdala.
•    Contributed to the understanding of emotional memory of negative
experiences faced by an individual that can be useful in therapy that attempts
to help individuals with trauma to forget such kind of experiences.
•    The finding of the study can be extremely useful for the advertising
agencies if emotionally intense information is more likely to be recognized
and recalled at a later date than advertisements that will appear on the
television or in a magazine may be designed to contain intense imagery on
purpose. Therefore, it will leave an impact on consumers.

Nature V/s Nurture Debate 

Nurture based explanation - as it correlates the person’s own amygdala

functioning to his or her experience of emotions and subsequent memory.
The amygdala functions similarly for all humans and has developed out of
evolution. It helps to understand the impact of natural human inheritance on
human emotions. However, it fails to consider the differences people might
show in their emotional experience because of the different environments that
they come from.

Individual and Situational Explanations 

Individual explanation - it correlates the person’s own amygdala functioning to

his or her experience of emotions and subsequent memory. It helps to
understand why different memories in a person’s life may be remembered
with different intensity. However, it does not consider the fact that few
memories can be remembered as strongly as other memories which have a
lesser emotional impact.