ABSTRACT
The prior chapters have emphasized the complexities inherent in examining emotion-memory interactions. How, then, can researchers begin to gain traction on the question of how different types of affective experience influence different mnemonic functions? This chapter outlines the three main approaches that researchers have used to study the effects of emotion on human memory: (1) behavioral assessments, (2) studies of patients with brain damage, and (3) neuroimaging investigations of healthy and abnormal brain function. These methods are complimentary, each providing a window through which we can see how emotion modulates memory. By integrating findings from these different approaches, we can begin to assemble a fuller picture of emotion-memory interactions.
