{"id":11834,"date":"2019-03-18T15:16:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T06:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?p=11834"},"modified":"2019-02-22T15:16:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T06:16:30","slug":"key-study-emotion-and-memory-of-a-baseball-game-kensinger-and-schacter-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2019\/03\/18\/key-study-emotion-and-memory-of-a-baseball-game-kensinger-and-schacter-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Study: Emotion and Memory of a Baseball Game (Kensinger and Schacter, 2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would you remember more about a wedding or a funeral? How about how you felt when you got an F on a test compared to getting an A? The effects of different emotions on memory is what K<\/strong>ensinger and Schacter’s study is about as they compare real-life memories of baseball fans from the 2004 world series final game – Boston Red Sox v the New York Yankees.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Background<\/h3>\n

The effects of negative events on memory has been well-studied (e.g. Luethi – read more\u00a0here<\/a>). So has the effects of stress hormones like cortisol on memory (see Buchanan and Lovallo for an example here<\/a>). But what is not as well studied is the effects of\u00a0positive\u00a0<\/em>events on memory. Moreover, most memory research happens in a laboratory and so it might be questionable how much these findings can be generalized to real-life environments.<\/p>\n

\"arena

Every sports match has winners and losers – so do their different emotions affect their memories differently? This study asked that question (Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In this study, the researchers took advantage of a long-standing rivalry in American baseball – the Boston Red Sox vs the New York Yankees. These two teams were playing in the championship series for the American League in 2004 and so the researchers could compare the effects on memory of the positive event (for the winning Red Sox fans) and the negative event (for the losing Yankees fans) while having many variables controlled (e.g. the event itself, media coverage, etc.). The study was based on Game 7, the final and deciding game of the series which is always very high in emotions for everyone watching.<\/p>\n

The original report does a very good job of summarizing the aim of this study: “by assessing memory for the final game of the 2004 American League championship series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees in individuals who found the event to be highly positive (Red Sox fans), highly negative (Yankees fans), or nonemotional (fans of neither team), we examined whether the perceived valence<\/em> (emotion) of a public event affected the amount of information recalled (and) whether it influenced … consistency of recall or confidence in a response\u2019s accuracy.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Methods<\/h3>\n

76 young adults aged between 18-35 were the participants. They were recruited by fliers that were posed around Boston. All participants must have watched the game for themselves to participate and there were three groups:<\/p>\n