Building Emotional Memories: From Neural Process to Narratives

Memory is a constructive process: As we experience an event, we build a memory representation, and later when we retrieve the memory, we build the representation anew. Kensinger’s work has focused on emotion’s influence on these constructive processes. More specifically, what details do people build into their memory representations for good or bad experiences? What neural processes do they use to build these representations? How can these memories, and their narrative framings, influence behavior? To what extent do the answers differ if someone is 70 versus 20 years old? What if they are experiencing high levels of stress? These are the questions Kensinger and her laboratory members have been investigating for nearly two decades. She will describe how they have used in-the-laboratory experiments and assessments of autobiographical memories, often combined with fMRI methodology, to provide answers. Kensinger will also note new questions these experiments have raised, suggesting avenues for future research.