Abstract

MOLTRASIO, Julieta; DETLEFSEN, Verónica; DOMINGUEZ, Florencia  and  RUBINSTEIN, Wanda. Emotional memory and the effect of music on the memory of older adults. Cienc. Psicol. [online]. 2022, vol.16, n.1, e2647.  Epub June 01, 2022. ISSN 1688-4094.  https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v16i1.2647.

Older adults remember emotional stimuli to a greater extent than neutral ones. This would be higher for positive stimuli. Several studies used music to modulate emotional memories in young adults, in the consolidation stage. This was scarcely studied in older adults using negative, positive and neutral stimuli. The aim of this work is to study emotional memory in older adults and the effect of activating and relaxing music on emotional and neutral visual memory. Forty-four older adults were evaluated. They observed negative, positive, and neutral pictures. Then, a relaxing, activating or white noise musical treatment was applied to them, followed by a free recall and recognition task. A week later, the free recall and recognition tasks were repeated. The results indicated better memory free of emotional stimuli, and a greater number of emotional false positives. Relaxing music worsened delayed recognition, and white noise produced better immediate recall of positive pictures. The results indicate that emotional memory is preserved in older adults. Music modulates memories differently in older adults compared to younger adults, as only relaxing music produced the expected effect.

Keywords : older adults; music; emotions; positive stimuli.

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