Effects of retrieval and emotion on within-item associative memory – Evidence from ERP and oscillatory subsequent memory effects

Previous studies have shown the effects of retrieval practice and emotion on associative memory separately. However, it is yet not clear what are the related neural mechanisms and how the two factors together influence associative memory? We examined this question by instructing participants to memorize emotional or neutral words using different ways of learning. Behaviorally, the source memory was enhanced by the retrieval practice compared to the restudy condition, and impaired by the negative compared to the neutral condition without an interaction. Consistent neural effects of retrieval practice were also found, in which subsequent memory effects (SME) of 500-700 ms parietal ERPs and alpha desynchronization were found for the retrieval practice but not for the restudy. No significant difference of SME for ERPs and time-frequency analyses regarding the emotion effect was found. These results demonstrated the neural mechanism for the effects of emotion and retrieval practice on subsequent memory.