Emotional Congruity at Encoding and Retrieval as Internal Contextual Cues for Long-Term Memory

Abstract

This study investigated whether emotional congruence between encoding and retrieval enhances long-term memory. Grounded in context-dependent and encoding variability theories, we tested whether discrete emotions—fear and joy—serve as internal contextual cues. Participants (N = 131) completed a Swahili-English paired associates task while listening to emotion-inducing audio clips during both encoding and retrieval. Emotional arousal was assessed via the Self-Assessment Manikin; physiological data (GSR, plethysmograph, respiration) were collected but not analyzed. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) congruent emotional states improve recall, (2) memory follows an inverted-U pattern with arousal, and (3) congruence benefits are stronger for fear. Bayesian ANOVAs provided weak-to-moderate evidence for the null across all hypotheses. Exploratory retention analyses also showed no credible benefit for congruence. These results suggest that under moderate arousal and concurrent task demands, discrete emotional congruence did not enhance memory. Findings inform theories of emotional memory and may have implications for education, clinical psychology, and eyewitness research.