Date of Award
6-2012
Document Type
Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Daniel Burns
Language
English
Keywords
memory, survival, retention, disgust, processing
Abstract
Recently, researchers have found that survival processing enhances retention. This led the authors to speculate that our memory systems have been fine tuned to remember survival relevant information. One question that might be asked is what is it about thinking about one’s survival that aids memory? As an extension of my previous research, this project examines the extent to which death and disgust influence recall in survival processing scenarios, determining whether or not death and disgust play a role in the memory enhancement associated with survival processing scenarios. There are four conditions in this study differing in the amount of death and disgust involved in each of the scenarios. The results of the study showed that there was no difference in retention between the four conditions, including the control condition. While a manipulation check determined that death and disgust was adequately manipulated, the recall results showed no effect of death and disgust on memory. This leads me to tentatively conclude that death and disgust is not one of the mechanisms responsible for the memory improvement seen in survival research.
Recommended Citation
Kramer, Melanie, "The extent to which “death and disgust” thoughts influence recall in survival processing scenarios" (2012). Honors Theses. 839.
https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/839