StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Episodic Memories by Payne and Kensinger - Article Example

Cite this document
Summary
As the paper outlines, emotion influences memory in many ways, it encourages some experiences to be lastingly remembered (Payne & Kensinger, 2010). Sleeping, according to many existing studies, has been proved to provide an ideal condition for memory consolidation…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96% of users find it useful
Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Episodic Memories by Payne and Kensinger
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Episodic Memories by Payne and Kensinger"

This study connects emotion, sleeping, and memory and focuses on emotion’s effect on memory consolidation. Sleep cannot be separated from neuronal activities. Medial temporal regions, including amygdala and hippocampus, are more active during REM sleep than during wakeful time. REM-rich sleep also associates with cortisol increases. Researchers found that sleep plays a role in processing memory for emotional experiences. A full night of sleep preferentially improves memory accuracy for recognition of negatively arousing pictures relevant to an equivalent period of daytime wakefulness (Payne & Kensinger, 2010).

However, they also sometimes found sleep can transform memories in ways that render memories less precise in some ways but more helpful as well as adaptive, in the long run. Emotionally salient aspects of information can be selectively remembered over less salient, neutral aspects (Payne & Kensinger, 2010). They finally conducted an experiment and suggested that sleep can change the quality of emotional memories. For example, sleep mediates consolidation process of a negative emotional experience into a lasting memory trace while permitting the fewer emotional features to deteriorate (Payne & Kensinger, 2010).

Also, details of emotional experiences continue to be altered when time passes and are fundamentally influenced by sleep-based consolidation processes (Payne & Kensinger, 2010). Payne and Kensinger studied what happened to memories in sleep. The results they obtained indicated that a person is predisposed to hang on to the main emotional component of a memory (Payne & Kensinger, 2010). For instance, if somebody sees a scene with an emotional object, like a broken car, in the forefront, he is more likely to memorize the emotional object than, for instance, the palm trees in the backdrop, particularly when he is tested after asleep in the night.

They also measured brain action in sleep and established that areas of the brain implicated in memory and emotion consolidation are lively. "In our fast-paced civilization, one of the first things to go is our sleep," Payne asserts. "I think that is based on a thoughtful misapprehension that the sleeping brain is not doing anything." The brain is active. It is not merely consolidating memories but it is organizing and selecting the most prominent information. According to her, this is what makes people come up with imaginative and new ideas (Payne & Kensinger, 2010).

It is important to know how sleep-dependent consolidation processes preferentially select some information than the other, and how the sleeping brain calculates such selection. If memory functions to predict and prepare for the future as much as to recall the past, then selective consolidation effects are worthy to investigate. Some disorders, like depression and PTSD, are associated with selective negative memory bias and marked changes in REM sleep physiology (Payne & Kensinger, 2010).

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Memories Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/psychology/1680598-sleeps-role-in-the-consolidation-of-emotional-memories
(Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Memories Essay)
https://studentshare.org/psychology/1680598-sleeps-role-in-the-consolidation-of-emotional-memories.
“Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Memories Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1680598-sleeps-role-in-the-consolidation-of-emotional-memories.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Sleeps Role in the Consolidation of Emotional Episodic Memories by Payne and Kensinger

Human Episodic Memory: Long and Short Term Stores

During this period memories can be modified, strengthened, or weakened by the interpolation of new material.... This paper “Human episodic Memory: Long and Short Term Stores” critically evaluates the cognitive neuropsychological evidence used to support the claim that human episodic memory is comprised of separate short- and long-term stores.... Neuropsychological analysis of human episodic memory is also presented....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Psychological science reaction paper

Robinson-Riegler & Robinson-Riegler (2008) discuss many inclusive steps involved in the cognitive process of which help people with their reasoning… Remembering necessitates goal-relevant memories in the face of opposition from irrelevant memories in a process termed regression (Kuhl, Dudukovic, This paper will focus upon empirical findings that support the forgetting aspects of the cognitive process namely whether forgetting occurs as an implicit automatic process of cognition or does it occur as a direct reaction of an explicit traumatic event....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Childrens Memories

hellip; This essay demonstrates that children above four years of age had an advanced memory and do not rely fully on episodic memory as they start to reason about the where and how the memories of learning they have were collected....  Children's memories Major theoretical issues The memory of children improves with age.... Children above four years of age had an advanced memory and do not rely fully in episodic memory as they start to reason about the where and how the memories of learning they have was collected....
3 Pages (750 words) Coursework

Sensations and Memories

The paper "Sensations and memories" describes that there is a strong connection between mechanisms people use to explore the world and their memory.... Every taste, smell or sound can serve as a trigger for memories people have.... Childhood memories are very strong for every person.... As a result, if they hear the same noise or feel the same smell in some time, it will evoke memories from the past.... As a result, if they hear the same noise or feel the same smell in some time, it will evoke memories from the past....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

How Dreams and Memory May Be Related

payne and Nadel have argued that content of dreams reflects aspects of memory consolidation taking place during the different stages of sleep.... hellip; It is a fact that dreams normally take place when a person sleeps.... The author of this research paper "How Dreams and Memory May Be Related" outlines that sleep, dream, and memory are considered to be related to each other....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Advantages of Good Sleep

People who are accustomed to see violence or who are accustomed to see terrific accidents like soldier in the army can easily suffer from PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, which is a condition referred to as continuous mental stress which occurs due to severe physical or emotional shocks followed by the lack of sleep in which the victims find themselves utterly helpless and those bad memories kept on coming in their mind thus causing them to isolate themselves from entire world, moaning and suffering in their own cocoon on mental pain and misery....
6 Pages (1500 words) Term Paper

DHD Patients Suffer from Sleep Problems

Both Short The paper “The Relation between Sleep, Memory Enhancement, Causes of emotional Deficiency among ADHD Patients" is a convincing example of research paper on psychology.... Conclusion The results obtained through this experimental observation would help in understanding the causes of emotional deficiency among ADHD patients.... This study helped in understanding the association between REM and retention of emotional memory.... The disorder is accompanied by lack of attention, hyperactivity and emotional problems combined… Several studies have shown a link between sleep and emotional memory....
3 Pages (750 words) Term Paper

Is There Good Evidence for Learning While Sleeping

Evidence shows that a person's brain works actively while they are sleeping in order to create pathways for areas such as memories, learning, and new insights.... This paper examines the evidence that has been put across in relation to learning and sleep.... The author state that learning good sleeping habits is very important, especially for students because it can aid them in memory and learning, as well as, understanding better what they learned in class....
8 Pages (2000 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us