Emotion, Hemispheric Specialization, and Visual and Verbal Memory for Television Messages

Abstract

This article investigates variations in visual and verbal memory for television messages as a function of the emotional valence of the message. It is theorized that emotional processing is lateralized, with positive emotions receiving greater left-brain processing and negative emotions greater right-brain processing. Because the left brain is the primary locus for verbal information processing and the right brain is the primary locus for visual-spatial processing, it is hypothesized that memory for negative emotional messages will be more visual than verbal, whereas memory for positive emotional messages will be more verbal than visual. This hypothesis is tested at the encoding and recall stages of processing by measuring subjects' recall and recognition for messages that vary in emotional valence. Results suggest that message valence may be related to the amount of visual or verbal information encoded. However, the effect is less evident at the retrieval stage.