Putting Emotional Memories in Context: The Constructionist Model of Emotional Memory

Given that the emotions associated with a stimulus affect its memorability, cognitive psychologists have long been interested in the intersection of emotion and memory. The bulk of such research has investigated the role of emotion in memory by examining the mnemonic effects of affective dimensions such as valence and arousal. However, in addition to studying such dimensions, the consideration of well-established theories of emotion from affective science represents a fruitful source of ideas whose implications for episodic memory have not yet been thoroughly investigated. In the current paper, we propose a model of emotional memory inspired by psychological constructionist theories of emotion, which conceive of emotions as emergent phenomena constructed when perceivers use conceptual knowledge to make sense of affective sensations in context. The constructionist model of emotional memory (CMEM) generates several novel directions for future research, such as investigating the mnemonic consequences of conceptual emotion knowledge, and considering the effects of variability in emotion construction at the situational, individual, and cultural levels.