Temporal Recall in the Shadow of Emotion: Separate Emotional Contexts Enhance Memory Beyond Explicit Emotional Awareness

Episodic memory, with its emphasis on temporal-spatial contexts, has been a longstanding focus in memory research. While previous studies have investigated the role of emotion in temporal source memory using emotionally charged stimuli, such as emotional words or images, the influence of a separated emotional context remains less explored. This study sought to understand the impact of separate emotional contexts on temporal source memory. Participants were exposed to characters set against separate emotional backgrounds (neutral or negative) and subsequently engaged in either a retrieval practice or a control condition. They were then required to identify both the temporal sequence and the emotional context of each character. Results from two experiments revealed that a negative emotional context enhanced the accuracy of temporal memory for adjacent neutral items, unlike a neutral setting. However, this negative context reduced the accuracy of recalling the associated emotion. Importantly, the boost in temporal memory due to the emotional context remained even when participants were unsure or mistaken about the specific emotion. Our findings highlight the profound influence of emotional contexts, even when separated from the item, on temporal memory recall. This research illuminates the complex interplay between emotion and temporal memory, underscoring the significant impact of emotional contexts on recall, irrespective of explicit emotional awareness.