Effects of Instructional Encoding, Exposure Time and Emotional Pictures on Recognition Memory for Entirely Identical Pictures

The present study examined the effect of instructional encoding, exposure time and emotional content of pictures in a recognition memory task. Twenty-four participants (N = 24) participated in this study. A 2(Instructional encoding: incidental and intentional) × 2(Exposure time: 250ms and 500ms) × 3(Emotional pictures: positive, negative and neutral) mixed factorial design with repeated measures on the last two factors was used. Instructional encoding served as the between subjects factor while exposure time and emotional pictures were treated as within subjects factor. The picture presentation and recognition task was developed using SuperLab 5.0. Results reveal exposure time and emotionality of pictures as potential factors, influencing the picture recognition under intentional and incidental encoding of instructions. It also theorizes that a change in exposure time should be accompanied with change in recognition of different emotional pictures.