Emotion-Driven Distortions in Temporal Memory: The Role of Visual Exploration during Encoding
(2026) PSYP01 20252Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Temporal information in episodic memory reflects how experiences are encoded rather than objective elapsed time, giving rise to systematic distortions. These are particularly evident in emotional contexts, consistent with emotion-related biases in attention. The present study investigated whether emotion-driven distortions in remembered temporal distance were explained by encoding-related attentional processes. In a within-subject design, emotional arousal (high vs. low) and valence (negative vs. positive) were orthogonally manipulated. Participants at two sites (N = 66; eye tracking in Lund only) viewed sequences of emotional images and subsequently judged the temporal distance between previously encoded image pairs separated by an... (More)
- Temporal information in episodic memory reflects how experiences are encoded rather than objective elapsed time, giving rise to systematic distortions. These are particularly evident in emotional contexts, consistent with emotion-related biases in attention. The present study investigated whether emotion-driven distortions in remembered temporal distance were explained by encoding-related attentional processes. In a within-subject design, emotional arousal (high vs. low) and valence (negative vs. positive) were orthogonally manipulated. Participants at two sites (N = 66; eye tracking in Lund only) viewed sequences of emotional images and subsequently judged the temporal distance between previously encoded image pairs separated by an objective interval. Encoding-related attention was indexed by fixation count, mean fixation duration, and gaze dispersion, and decision-phase gaze transitions were examined as an exploratory measure of choice dynamics. Behavioral analyses showed an overestimation of remembered temporal distance under high arousal. Encoding-related attention systematically varied by emotional image content, indicating that emotion shaped visual sampling during encoding. Centrally, attentional processes during encoding were associated with distortions in remembered temporal distance beyond emotional effects. Fewer fixations and longer fixation durations were associated with greater overestimation, with evidence that the fixation-count association was stronger for negative than positive images. Gaze dispersion predicted temporal distance distortions as a function of arousal. Decision-phase gaze transitions were modestly related to reduced temporal distance distortions. Together, the findings indicate that emotional arousal robustly biased remembered temporal distance and that encoding-related attentional dynamics contributed to variability in the magnitude of these distortions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9224036
- author
- Langohr, Kristin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20252
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- eye-movements, encoding, temporal distance memory, emotional arousal, emotional valence
- language
- English
- id
- 9224036
- date added to LUP
- 2026-03-12 16:09:18
- date last changed
- 2026-03-12 16:09:18
@misc{9224036,
abstract = {{Temporal information in episodic memory reflects how experiences are encoded rather than objective elapsed time, giving rise to systematic distortions. These are particularly evident in emotional contexts, consistent with emotion-related biases in attention. The present study investigated whether emotion-driven distortions in remembered temporal distance were explained by encoding-related attentional processes. In a within-subject design, emotional arousal (high vs. low) and valence (negative vs. positive) were orthogonally manipulated. Participants at two sites (N = 66; eye tracking in Lund only) viewed sequences of emotional images and subsequently judged the temporal distance between previously encoded image pairs separated by an objective interval. Encoding-related attention was indexed by fixation count, mean fixation duration, and gaze dispersion, and decision-phase gaze transitions were examined as an exploratory measure of choice dynamics. Behavioral analyses showed an overestimation of remembered temporal distance under high arousal. Encoding-related attention systematically varied by emotional image content, indicating that emotion shaped visual sampling during encoding. Centrally, attentional processes during encoding were associated with distortions in remembered temporal distance beyond emotional effects. Fewer fixations and longer fixation durations were associated with greater overestimation, with evidence that the fixation-count association was stronger for negative than positive images. Gaze dispersion predicted temporal distance distortions as a function of arousal. Decision-phase gaze transitions were modestly related to reduced temporal distance distortions. Together, the findings indicate that emotional arousal robustly biased remembered temporal distance and that encoding-related attentional dynamics contributed to variability in the magnitude of these distortions.}},
author = {{Langohr, Kristin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Emotion-Driven Distortions in Temporal Memory: The Role of Visual Exploration during Encoding}},
year = {{2026}},
}