Previous research has shown that emotional stimuli may interfere with working memory (WM) processes, but little is known about the process affected. Using a complex span task, the present study investigated the influence of processing negative emotional content on attentional maintenance in WM. In two experiments conducted under articulatory suppression, participants were asked to remember a series of five letters, each of which was followed by an image to be categorised. In half of the trials, the images were negative and in the other half, they were neutral. In both experiments, our results showed longer processing times for emotional stimuli than neutral stimuli, and lower memory performance when participants processed negative stimuli. We propose that emotional stimuli direct more attentional resources towards the processing component of the WM task, thereby reducing the storage capacity available for the items that are to be remembered.

It is well established that emotional events are better remembered than neutral events. However, little is known about emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) in children. This is particularly the case when the main components of episodic memory are considered: core information (item memory) and its associated contextual details (associative memory). In 2 experiments, the present study tested whether the negative or positive emotional valence of words and pictures can influence item and associative memory. The contextual information to be associated with items was the gender of the voice pronouncing words and the type of frame in which pictures were displayed in Experiment 1, and the spatial location of stimuli in Experiment 2. Two groups of 8- to 11-year-old children (Experiment 1 n = 32 and Experiment 2 n = 36) performed the experiments and were compared to two groups of equivalent numbers of young adults. Participants completed an intentional-encoding task followed by immediate item recognition, associative recall and item recall tasks. Over the two experiments and in both groups, the results revealed (a) no EEM for words and pictures in recognition tasks, (b) EEM for words in item recall and associative recall tasks, and (c) mixed results for pictures, with an EEM being observed in item recall tasks but not systematically in associative recall tasks. By extending the results over two types of stimuli and their associated contextual information, our study provides new knowledge concerning the effect of emotions on episodic memory in children, which seems to be similar to that observed in young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Emotional Enhancement of Memory (EEM) has been well-demonstrated in adults, but less is known about EEM in children. The present study tested the impact of emotional valence of pictures on episodic memory using behavioral and neurophysiological measures. Twenty-six 8- to 11-year-old children were tested and compared to 30 young adults. Both groups participated in pictures’ intentional encoding tasks while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded, followed by immediate free recall tasks. Behavioral results revealed a general EEM in free recall performances in both groups, along with a negativity effect in children. ERP responses revealed a particular sensitivity to negative pictures in children with a late emotion effect at anterior clusters, as well as a greater successful encoding effect for emotional pictures compared to neutral ones. For adults, the emotion effect was more pronounced for positive pictures across all time windows from the centro-parietal to the frontal part, and localized in the left hemisphere. Positive pictures also elicited a greater successful encoding effect at anterior clusters in adults. By combining behavioral and neurophysiological measures to assess the EEM in children compared with adults, our study provides new knowledge concerning the interaction between emotional and memory processes during development.

Children and adolescents with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) have been described as having specific memory abilities and emotional reactivity. Although it is well established in the literature that emotion can enhance memory, no such studies have been undertaken in individuals with WBS. In three experiments, the present study tested whether the negative or positive emotional valence of stimuli can influence verbal, visual and visuo-spatial memory by specifically evaluating two memory components: item and associative memory. Sixteen 8- to 18-year-old individuals with WBS performed the first two experiments and, among them, twelve participated in the third. They were compared to equivalent groups of typically developing control children. Participants completed intentional-encoding tasks followed by immediate item recognition, associative recall or item recall tasks. Event-related potential measures during encoding and recognition of pictures were also added in the third experiment. Results demonstrated, for the first time, effects of emotions on visual item memory and visuo-spatial associative memory in individuals with WBS, that were similar to those observed in typically developing children. By combining behavioral and neural measures, our study provides new knowledge of the interaction between emotion and memory in WBS individuals, which seems to be unaffected by their atypical development.

Ces dernières années, les émotions et la cognition, et en particulier le lien entre ces deux domaines, ont fasciné les scientifiques du monde entier, donnant naissance à de nombreux travaux de recherche en psychologie, sciences cognitives et neurosciences. L’une des fonctions cognitives qui a éminemment attirée l’attention des chercheurs, en lien avec la modulation émotionnelle à laquelle elle est assujettie, est la mémoire épisodique. Aussi, les travaux de recherche réalisés chez l’Homme se sont largement accordés sur un point : les émotions participent à l’amélioration de la mémoire épisodique, un phénomène qui, dans la littérature, porte le nom de Emotional Enhancement of Memory (EEM). Si ce phénomène a amplement été étudié dans la population adulte, la nature de l’interaction entre mémoire et émotions reste largement inexplorée au cours du développement ontogénétique. Or, l’enfance est une période charnière durant laquelle des modifications majeures émergent au niveau du fonctionnement cérébral, sous-tendant le développement cognitif et émotionnel de l’enfant jusqu’à l’âge adulte. Ce travail de thèse s’est donc centré, dans un premier temps, sur l’étude de l’EEM chez l’enfant au développement typique (DT) afin de mettre en exergue de potentielles modulations développementales comparativement à la population adulte. Dans un deuxième temps, afin d’élargir nos connaissances sur l’EEM au cours du développement, ce travail de thèse a adopté une approche neuropsychologique avec l’étude de ce phénomène auprès d’enfants et d’adolescents porteurs d’un trouble neuro-développemental appelé syndrome de Williams-Beuren (SWB). Ainsi, plusieurs études expérimentales ont été conduites afin d’évaluer l’EEM chez l’enfant au DT et dans le SWB, à la fois avec des évaluations comportementales, comprenant des tâches d’encodage et de récupération en mémoire de stimuli émotionnels (négatifs et positifs) et neutres, ainsi qu’avec des mesures neurophysiologiques grâce à l’électro-encéphalographie (EEG). En particulier, les évaluations comportementales se sont intéressées à l’analyse de la mémoire épisodique dans sa globalité, c’est-à-dire en tenant compte de ses deux composants principaux qui sont la mémoire de l’item et la mémoire associative. Les résultats obtenus dans ce travail de recherche ont permis, pour la première fois, de mettre en évidence l’émergence d’un EEM à la fois en mémoire de l’item et en mémoire associative chez les enfants au DT âgés de 8 à 11 ans, et ceci de façon similaire à des jeunes adultes. Des premiers indices de la modulation des réponses neuronales lors de l’encodage de stimuli émotionnels pouvant prédire les performances comportementales en mémoire, ont également été apportés chez les enfants au DT. Par ailleurs, ce travail de recherche a contribué à fournir des premières preuves de l’émergence d’un EEM chez les enfants et adolescents porteurs du SWB âgés de 8 à 18 ans, qui apparaissait de façon similaire à un groupe de jeunes enfants au DT. Dans l’ensemble, ce travail de thèse a permis de démontrer que l’EEM est un phénomène robuste, qui se mettrait en place précocement au cours du développement et qui ne semblerait pas être affecté par l’immaturité de certains processus mnésiques observée chez les enfants au DT, ni par l’altération de ces processus dans le cas du SWB.