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How Keeping Cool Can Affect Your Memory
Sept. 7, 2000 -- Don't cry out loud. Never let them see you sweat. Keep a poker face. Put a lid on it. Get a grip. We've all heard these sayings at one time or another and now new research suggests that such tactics may actually affect how well we remember certain events.
In fact, staying too calm, cool, and collected in the face of an emotional event can hinder the memory of the event, according to a study published in the September issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
There are many ways that people may try to regulate their emotions. Like the times when we keep a stiff upper lip, or when we try to view a situation with a detached interest, even looking at a potentially emotional situation as a challenge rather than a threat.
The research team, Jane M. Richards, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and James J. Gross, PhD, a psychologist at Stanford University, set out to determine whether emotional regulation affects memory and if the consequences are the same for all the types of emotional regulation.
"There's a general tradition that says emotions are bad and that they disrupt our ability to think clearly, so we should get a grip and put a lid on our emotions, but such efforts to control emotion can affect our memory and cognitive function," Richards tells WebMD. However, "there are some ways to get a grip and maintain composure that can make you feel better, look better and retain cognitive function."
For example, she says, when you try to hide your emotions, you're less likely to remember details of an event or altercation, because the mental effort required to control your emotions takes away from mental resources needed for memory. But if you think about a situation just a little less emotionally, with some detachment, then you can preserve your memory, she says.
To arrive at these conclusions, the research duo performed three experiments. In one experiment, 53 participants watched a movie clip where a married couple argued about infidelity in front of their young daughter. Half of the study participants were told to keep a stiff upper lip while watching the clip, while the other half were only told to watch and listen.
Those participants who watched the clip with a stiff upper lip had poorer memories of what was said and done in the film clip.
In a second experiment, the researchers showed participants slides of people who had been injured. One group was asked to show no expression upon seeing the slides, another group was asked to view them with the detached interest of a medical professional, and a third group was asked to simply look at the slides.
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