How do involuntary memories interfere with ongoing behaviour? (360G-Wellcome-211934_Z_18_Z)

This research will provide insights into how emotionally salient memories affect behaviour. In tasks where there is no requirement to remember, brain activity measures have shown that previously encountered positive and negative valence material is more likely to be retrieved than neutral material. It is important to extend this research to understand how this kind of involuntary retrieval influences behaviour. Participants will see negatively valenced as well as neutral pictures. In a subsequent task, participants will see these pictures again, interspersed with new (unstudied) pictures. There will be two blocks in this task. In one, participants will indicate whether the pictures are presented to the left/right of fixation. In the other, participants will indicate whether the picture depicts an event occurring indoors or outdoors. In both tasks, the key measure is reaction time. The critical questions are whether: (i) prior exposure increases reaction times, and (ii) this is more likely for negative valence pictures. Using two tasks permits an assessment of whether focusing on perceptual (block one) or semantic content (block two) influences when interference occurs. At issue is the influence that involuntary retrieval of emotional material has on behaviour.